(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – On the night of 1 October 2004, the offices of the Tegucigalpa-based daily “La Tribuna” came under attack. A group allegedly composed of police officers fired shots at the daily’s administrative and editorial offices as they drove by. The criminal investigations police has announced that it will conduct a thorough investigation into the […]
(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – On the night of 1 October 2004, the offices of the Tegucigalpa-based daily “La Tribuna” came under attack. A group allegedly composed of police officers fired shots at the daily’s administrative and editorial offices as they drove by.
The criminal investigations police has announced that it will conduct a thorough investigation into the incident. On 4 October, Security Minister Óscar Álvarez assured the daily that the best investigative officers had been assigned to the case and would soon report on the motives for the attack. The minister added that “all efforts would be made to shed light on this disconcerting attack on press freedom and a media outlet.”
The daily is owned by former Honduran president Carlos Flores Facussé (1998-2002). “La Tribuna” recently published a series of investigative reports on organised crime inside the National Penitentiary (Penitenciaria Nacional, PN), the country’s largest prison. In the reports, the daily alleged that the criminal activity inside the jail is being carried out with the complicity of the authorities. As a result of the daily’s investigations, the Security Secretariat’s director, David Orlando Fuentes, was recently removed from his post for alleged “incompetence.”
A number of “La Tribuna” journalists have reportedly received threats in connection with the published reports, but up to now the daily has not made an announcement regarding these claims.
According to witnesses who spoke to “La Tribuna”, the shots were fired by an officer from the Cobra special police unit, which is in charge of counterinsurgency and special assault operations.
