Honduras: Journalism in the Shadow of Impunity

B. Possible motives for journalist murders i) Violence related to political reportage Within this violent context, the extent to which journalists have been targeted as a result of their reporting on politics is unclear. According to information provided to the iachr Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression by the Honduran government on February 22, 2013, of the 22 deaths it has recorded, “preliminary investigations confirm that the homicides [were] the result of common crime or organized crime, and it has not been determined that they were motivated by the opinions expressed by the media workers about the government.”102 Independent Honduran officials, however, report differently. Ramón Custodio is the National Commissioner for Human Rights, the independent ombudsperson for human rights. Although he rejected the idea that journalists were killed for political reasons following the coup, Custodio believes that most killings were linked to the journalists’ work and few were a result of common crime.103 Jorge Omar Casco, Co-ordinating Commissioner of the Public Security Reform Commission (Comisión de Reforma de la Seguridad Pública – crsp) has said that journalists face elevated risks because of their profession.104 Casco believes journalists may be targeted because of what they say, if they speak critically, or because of what they fail to say – if they do not defend a particular person.105 Non-governmental rights monitors have also stated that murdered journalists were likely targeted because of their work. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (cpj), at least five journalists have been killed as a result of their professional activities since 1993.106 Human Rights Watch (hrw) reports that it is not clear how many journalists have been killed as a result of their professional work, but that ongoing political polarization in Honduras and circumstantial evidence, including statements by perpetrators, suggest that many of the journalists killed in 2010 were targeted because of their political views.107 Indeed, according to the iachr, during and immediately following the 2009 coup, journalists and media outlets perceived to be closely aligned with the government were targets of violence, presumably by individuals and/or groups opposed to the coup.108 In the coup’s aftermath, media workers and outlets deemed sympathetic to the resistance movement were targeted by agents of the state as well as private individuals, restricting their ability to report on events related to the coup.109 hrw also confirms that journalists may have been killed for political reasons.110 ii) Organized crime and narcotrafficking Manuel Orozco, Director of Migration, Remittances and Development at the Inter-American Dialogue, a US policy analysis centre, believes the consolidation of organized crime in recent years has sparked the increase in the murders of journalists.

Orozco notes that it is not journalists from prominent media outlets who are being killed, but rather those from lesser known radio stations or television channels who are more likely to report on organized crime and corruption amongst state actors.111 Larger media outlets are controlled by powerful private sector economic interests, which exert influence on what can be published.112 Orozco explains that while the economic elites may not be corrupt, they often set limits on what can be reported because they know and/or work with others who are corrupt and it is “not convenient 21