Comité por la Libre Expresión – C-Libre

A Honduran journalist said he fears for his life after having reported complaints by local residents against the Aguas de Choloma company.

Journalist José Noel Canales Lagos was killed on his way to work for the online newspaper hondudiario.com; his murder brings the total number of journalists killed in Honduras in the past decade to 30.

After reporting on the links between a businessman and the police, a journalist was offered some money in exchange for leaving Honduras during the current term of the National Congress president.

Journalist Ariel D’Vicente is receiving protection after he reported that the wife of the former finance minister was found with money that came from shrimp farming royalty payments paid out to an official high up within the Lobo Sosa government.

Selvin Martínez said a man opened fire on him while he was driving his motorcycle, taking his wife and daughter to a school in Presa Vieja.

“Sources told me that I am being monitored and that my radio and TV programmes are being recorded . . . I decided to publicise this information as a way of protecting myself,” said the journalist.

UPDATE: The president of IFEX member Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR), Nabeel Rajab, was re-arrested and sentenced to three years in prison on 16 August. Many other human rights defenders remain in prison, including BCHR’s founder Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, and his daughter, Zainab Al-Khawaja.

News of Alfredo Villatoro’s murder spread quickly through the national media and dozens of journalists showed up at the morgue in a show of solidarity for their colleague, condemning his murder.