Attempts by Honduran authorities to silence outspoken journalists
Attempts by Honduran authorities to silence outspoken journalists
September 16, 2016
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the increasingly hostile climate for the media in Honduras and the recent series of direct or indirect attempts by the authorities to silence outspoken journalists. TV presenter Ariel Armando D’Vicente’s three-year jail sentence in a defamation case last month is particularly worrying.
Honduras is one of Latin America’s most dangerous countries for the media. Both murders of journalists – there have been eight since the start of 2015 – and cases of censorship of various kinds are frequent. RSF has registered several grave media freedom violations in Honduras in the past six weeks alone.
The producer and presenter of the programme “Prensa Libre” on the independent Libertad TV channel, Ariel Armando D’Vicente was sentenced on 24 August to three years in prison and a three-year ban on working as a journalist for allegedly defaming Oquelí Mejía Tinoco, the former police chief of the southern department of Choluteca. D’Vicente’s lawyer has appealed.
D’Vicente reported in 2014 that Mejía and police officers under his command were involved in the illegal trafficking of cattle between Central America and Mexico in association with criminal groups.
More:
https://rsf.org/en/news/attempts-honduran-authorities-silence-outspoken-journalists
