(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – Journalist Óscar Valdez, director of “La otra cara” television programme, broadcast by Telecab company and Radio Antena 5 radio station in the northeastern department Olancho, is facing a lawsuit for alleged defamation and slander for having broadcast information about alleged irregularities in the sale of light bulbs or floodlights that consume less energy. […]
(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – Journalist Óscar Valdez, director of “La otra cara” television programme, broadcast by Telecab company and Radio Antena 5 radio station in the northeastern department Olancho, is facing a lawsuit for alleged defamation and slander for having broadcast information about alleged irregularities in the sale of light bulbs or floodlights that consume less energy.
The suit was filed by the company EUREE, implicated in the reports, after Valdez mentioned on 31 August 2006 a series of complaints that had been made by consumers, to the effect that the company was selling the bulbs to the public at higher-than-market prices.
Valdez decided to investigate the complaints and found out that, although the price of the energy-saving lights was between 72 and 85 lempiras (approx. US$3 to US$4) in the local market, EUREE was selling them to its clients at approximately US$18 a bulb, on credit, after signing agreements that, according to his investigations, are legally invalid.
Valdez told the Committee for Free Expression (Comité por la Libre Expresión, C-Libre) that the letters of agreement which the clients were obliged to sign “authorised the state electricity company, Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica, to charge payments for the bulbs on the monthly electricity bills, but these agreements have no legal validity.”
“Given these irregularities, we invited a company representative to our programme, but he never appeared, despite having given us his word he would come to respond to the complaints. Now, they’ve sued me for exercising my right to information and freedom of expression,” said Valdez.
The journalist’s complaint was backed by the Catacamas Chamber of Commerce President, Miguel Rafael Osorio, who said the company and its way of operating ought to be investigated; however, Osorio is also being sued for the same alleged crimes of defamation and slander.
Valdez has been summoned to court for a conciliation hearing to take place on 22 September in the city of Juticalpa, the Olancho department’s administrative centre. “I can’t retract what we investigate, or give up free expression or the right to information, nor can I ignore the dismay of the consumers who were surprised to find that they had signed agreements that were in fact null and void,” the journalist added.
