International community urged to demand an end to news media lockdown by de facto authorities

Reporters Without Borders calls on the international community to press the Honduran de facto government to stop controlling news coverage and stop discriminating against media that are critical of the 28 June coup. The outside world has had less and less access to news about the situation inside Honduras since the expulsion of 11 journalists employed by the Venezuelan state-run TV stations Telesur and Venezolana de Televisión. “Aside from coverage of the now stalled negotiations between Manuel Zelaya and the de facto authorities who ousted him, we are getting less and less news about events on the ground in Honduras,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The censorship of certain media since 28 June is beginning to have a terrible effect – international public opinion is now being kept in the dark about a situation that could explode at any time.” The press freedom organisation added: “The pressure that foreign governments are putting on the de facto authorities should focus on this issue. The international media also have a duty to support their Honduran colleagues.” Honduran journalists have told Reporters Without Borders that radio and TV stations are liable to be suspended if they broadcast even the briefest report about the ousted president or give any airtime to one of his ministers or representatives. At the same time, the government headed by de facto President Roberto Micheletti is using a telecommunications law dating from the Cold War to force broadcasters to carry its statements and communiqués or risk being sanctioned. Liliet Diaz of privately-owned Radio Globo was turned away from a news conference given by members of the de facto government on 13 July. Soldiers denied her entry when she identified her radio station, which is critical of Micheletti and has been suspended several times since the 28 June coup. Today, Radio Globo said its website had been shut down after it reported that the mayor of San Pedro Sula had been dismissed. Even referring to Zelaya’s removal as a “coup d’état” can cost a journalist his job. Allan Adális Martínez, who has worked for the “Libre Expresión” programme on Radio Alegre for 13 years, was fired on 15 July for doing just this. “The station’s owner, Carlos Hernández, told me I could continue hosting the programme on the condition that I censored myself but I preferred not to comply,” Adális told the Committee for Free Expression in Honduras (C-Libre). A Maya TV reporter told Reporters Without Borders its owner has been pressured about programme content while C-Libre reported that a radio programme by the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (Cofadeh) that used to be broadcast by Radio América has been suppressed. Frequent interruptions in cable TV service in the provinces is blocking access to international news stations such as CNN and Telesur, which were censored altogether immediately after the coup. Some media such as La Tribuna, owned by former President Carlos Flores Facussé are completely ignoring significant aspects of the political crisis, especially the resistance to the coup. Similar editorial policies are being followed by El Heraldo and La Prensa, two newspapers owned by Jorge Canahuati, a businessman who supports the conservative National Party. News manipulation is another source of danger. On 5 July, at time when Telesur was providing live footage of soldiers firing on the crowd that had gathered outside the airport to await Zelaya’s return, the de facto government forced the local media to keep broadcasting claims that Honduras was being invaded by armed groups backed by Nicaragua and Venezuela. These false claims fuelled a climate of tension that led to physical attacks on foreigners and were used as pretext for arresting several journalists in the days that followed. (Photo : AFP)