Authorities continue to imprison journalists in unsafe conditions in the midst of a global pandemic. Romero had been convicted and sentenced on defamation charges.
This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 19 July 2020.
Romero was the director of the media outlets Radio Globo and Globo TV. In January 2019, Honduras’ Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower court’s conviction and sentencing on charges that Romero defamed former prosecutor Sonia Inez Gálvez Ferrari in his journalistic work, as CPJ reported at the time. In March 2019, Romero was arrested and began serving his 10-year sentence for slander and defamation.
CPJ emailed the Honduran Secretariat for the Protection of Human Rights asking for comment on Romero but did not receive a reply.
In its #FreeThePress campaign, CPJ and more than 190 groups earlier this year urged world leaders to release all journalists imprisoned for their work because of the threat of contracting COVID-19 in jail.