Media still gagged five years after coup

Media still gagged five years after coup
Published on Saturday 28 June 2014.

Freedom of information has declined dramatically in Honduras in the five years since the coup d’état of 28 June 2009. The violent crackdown and censorship that marked the first few months after the coup have been followed ever since by constant violations of human rights and media rights.

The current president, Juan Orlando Hernández is a fervent advocate of “security by all possible means.” During a four-year stint as parliamentary speaker ending a year ago, he pushed through a series of laws that reinforced the militarization of Honduran society and restrictions on access to information.

The prioritization of security prevents many media and other entities from gathering and circulating information of public interest. Migdonia Ayestas, the head of a violence-monitoring unit at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH), criticizes the police for preventing the media from publishing the information she gathers every day about violence, including violence in remote areas.

Her unit was also recently forced to stop publishing its nine-year-old monthly report on violence in Honduras because the interior ministry refused to share its statistics with her any more.

More:
http://en.rsf.org/honduras-media-still-gagged-five-years-28-06-2014,46547.html