Journalist Fausto Elio Hernández had reported on the municipal administration, the National Registry, farming conflicts in the Bajo Aguan region, and had recently covered the fire at the Comayagua prison that killed 361 prisoners.
(C-Libre/IFEX) – 12 March 2012, Tegucigalpa – Journalist Fausto Elio Hernández, 58, correspondent and presenter of the “La Voz de la Noticia” programme broadcast by Radio Alegre in Saba, Colón, became the second journalist to be killed in Honduras in 2012. According to a preliminary police report, at around 10:30 a.m. on 10 March 2012, Hernández was killed by unknown attackers who stabbed him with machetes.
The attack took place in the Standar district of the city when Hernández was riding his bicycle to his home in the Golondrinas area. Neighbours told the police they heard shouts and then saw a group of people running away from the scene of the crime.
Hernández had worked as a journalist for nine years, starting out first in his home town of Olanchito in Yoro department. For the last eight years he had worked for Radio Alegre as a correspondent and presenter, but he had also collaborated with a local television station owned by the same company. Hernández had reported on the municipal administration, the National Registry, farming conflicts in the Bajo Aguan region, and had recently covered the fire at the Comayagua prison that killed 361 prisoners.
During the time that Porfirio Lobo Sosa has been in office, 19 journalists and media workers have been killed in Honduras; these murders remain unpunished. The president said on 19 November 2011 that his government has been delayed in investigating the incidents, which seems to indicate a lack of political will to resolve the crimes. This situation of injustice, characterised by basic and limited investigations, coupled with judicial inefficiency, has created a hostile environment for the practice of the journalistic profession which is under threat of extreme violence.
