Honduras

We, the 24 member organisations of the IFEX-ALC network, who work to defend freedom of expression and press freedom in 14 Latin American and Caribbean countries and who form part of the broader IFEX network that defends and promotes free expression worldwide, express our deep concern over the freedom of expression situation in Honduras.

Defending a human right as basic as respect for sexual orientation can be a deadly sin in Honduras, as demonstrated by the wave of attacks and assassinations perpetrated against activists in the country.

David Romero Ellner’s journalistic work has frequently alleged corruption in President Juan Orlando Hernández’s administration.

CPJ called on Honduran authorities to investigate threats against freelance journalist Nina Lakhani – who is in Honduras to cover the high-profile trial of eight men charged in the 2016 murder of indigenous environmental leader Berta Cáceres – and to ensure journalists are able to report safely from the country.

An unidentified man approached journalista Cesar Silva while he was reporting and lunged at the reporter with a knife.

Eight years after a coup d’état, the level of press freedom is still sinking in Honduras.

While in the murder of journalists of Honduras and Mexico there exist doubts about whether the motives were linked to their work, IAPA urges the authorities of the two countries to investigate the cases promptly and effectively in order to establish the causes and determine who was responsible.

Violence and threats against activists and journalists in Honduras are among the highest in the world. And new laws are making the situation even worse.

Jairo López, a journalist in the southern city of Choluteca has been targeted by both a flawed criminal defamation trial and an intimidating smear campaign. Honduran authorities should urgently give him protection and ensure the trial is fair.

Journalist Edgar Joel Aguilar received a death threat via social media; he has worked for 14 years as a presenter, chronicling local violence and crime incidents.

If his recent conviction on defamation charges is upheld on appeal, TV reporter Ariel Armando D’Vicente faces three years in prison and a three-year ban on practicing journalism.

PEN Honduras member Cesario Alejandro Félix Padilla Figueroa is facing immediate detention after a warrant was issued for his arrest and that of five other students at the National Autonomous University of Honduras.

Radio journalist Felix Molina said that he was twice accosted by armed assailants while travelling by taxi on Monday. He was hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries following the second incident, in which he was shot twice in each leg.

The assassination of prominent environmental activist Berta Cáceres has demonstrated that anyone who opposes the powerful interests in Honduras is in serious danger. How did we get here?

The Fourth Chamber of the Honduras’ Sentencing Court sentenced David Romero Ellner, director of Radio Globo and Globo TV, to prison time for each of six charges that he defamed former Honduran prosecutor Sonia Inez Gálvez Ferrari in his journalistic work.

Are the escalating violence, deteriorating human rights climate and shocking rates of impunity enough to wake people up to the current reality in Honduras?