Radio Uno stopped broadcasting after the power lines to its transmitters were cut on the evening of 30 August.
(C-Libre/IFEX) – The actions against the Radio Uno radio station in the northern city of San Pedro Sula have increased in the last three months and came to a head on 30 August 2010 when the station was left unable to broadcast after the power lines to its transmitters were cut.
Oneyda Geraldina Madrid, a managerial assistant at the radio station, told C-Libre that, at 8:30 p.m. on 30 August, the radio was forced off the air when the power lines were cut. The station was in the midst of analysing events that had taken place in the previous days with respect to police repression of protest actions being undertaken by teachers. Madrid said an attempt to cut the power had also been made at 3:00 in the afternoon on the same day, but that the vandals cut a different cable and the station managed to continue broadcasting.
“Since the coup d’etat in Honduras, Radio Uno has been subjected to attacks, including having had teargas canisters thrown at its facility. People who collaborate with the station have been persecuted,” Madrid said. In anonymous calls to the station, death threats have been issued and the station’s personnel have been warned that the transmitters and broadcasting towers will be attacked.
As a result of the actions against it, Radio Uno has filed three complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. It is unknown whether any investigations have been launched.
Madrid said that the radio station will ask for a thorough investigation of this latest attack.
The radio station is operated under the auspices of the “Primero de December” (First of December) Institute for Communication Sciences. It does not receive support from corporate sources and is instead dependent on international agencies and support provided by students and community members.
