Earlier this month several media groups denounced the spike in murdered Honduran journalists. Sadly the trend seems to have worsened:The Committee to Protect Journalists voiced deep concern today at the killing of Honduran television anchor Jorge Alberto Orellana, the sixth journalist killed in the country since March…Orellana becomes the seventh Honduran journalist to be slain in 2010 though the motive behind his murder was unclear.
“We urge Honduran authorities to fully investigate the murder of journalist Jorge Orellana, establish if he was killed for his work, and bring those responsible to justice,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s senior program coordinator for the Americas. “The authorities must take swift and decisive action to stop this wave of deadly violence that is seriously limiting the media’s ability to report the news”.
The murders come as several countries are pushing for the normalizing of political relations with Honduras and that had been broken since the last year's ouster of then-president Manuel Zelaya. Despite being very critical of Zelaya’s removal, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said earlier today that he may renew ties with Honduras and may also recognize the government of current Honduran President Porfirio Lobo.
Image- Washington Post (“Hondurans in Tegucigalpa listen to a news conference by President Manuel Zelaya from Costa Rica” in June 2009.)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, The Committee to Protect Journalists, AP, BusinessWeek, Voice of America
Actually, I don't think any country should normalize relations with Honduras until the Lobo government takes effective action against the perpetrators of the journalists' killings - and for that matter, until it gets a handle on the spiraling homicide rate in that country...
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