(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – Journalist Rodolfo Montalbán, of STC Noticias radio station, has informed the Committee for Free Expression (Comité por la Libre Expresión, C-Libre) that he is being harassed and has received death threats. Montalbán believes that supporters of Tegucigalpa’s mayor, Miguel Pastor, may be behind the actions against him. Pastor is aspiring to become the […]
(PROBIDAD/IFEX) – Journalist Rodolfo Montalbán, of STC Noticias radio station, has informed the Committee for Free Expression (Comité por la Libre Expresión, C-Libre) that he is being harassed and has received death threats. Montalbán believes that supporters of Tegucigalpa’s mayor, Miguel Pastor, may be behind the actions against him. Pastor is aspiring to become the presidential candidate for the ruling Partido Nacional party. The threats, which have recently become more frequent, have been in the form of anonymous telephone calls in which the caller threatens to physically harm the journalist if he continues to criticise Pastor’s actions.
According to Montalbán, the actions against him and other journalists who cover political issues began on 6 and 7 October 2004, when two unidentified individuals filmed a group of journalists who were covering a story about an alleged complaint against the municipality. “They filmed me, as well as journalists Mario Sánchez, of Radio América, Carlos Girón, of ‘La Prensa’ newspaper, and Mario Fajardo of ‘La Tribuna’,” Montalbán said.
The licence plate number of the vehicle the individuals were using was traced to the PROMEGA advertising agency, which produces public announcements for the Municipality of Tegucigalpa and is linked to Billy Joya Améndola, a retired military officer. Joya has been accused of having belonged to Honduras’s death squads in the 1980s. He is currently Pastor’s security advisor.
