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Freedom of Expression

Honduras

PRINCIPLE 9 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Murder, kidnapping, intimidation of and/or threats to social communicators, as well as the material destruction of communications media)

 25.              On March 12, 2004, in the city of San Pedro Sula, journalist Edgardo Castro of Canal 6, was wounded by a youth who approached him and shot at him five times; one of the shots slightly wounded him. The Honduran police reported on March 17, 2004, that sectors of organized crime were thought to be involved in the attack.[1]

 26.              On October 1, 2004, the facilities of the daily newspaper La Tribuna, in Tegucigalpa, were the target of two shots fired from a police vehicle. The police were said to have characterized the act as in the nature of a “contingency” caused by a “cobra” agent who was handling the weapon while reviewing his equipment. The Ministry of Security investigated the case.[2] Several reporters from the paper had received threatening phone calls.

27.              Beginning November 24, 2004, journalist Jhony Lagos, director of El Libertador, reported being followed and receiving phone calls with death threats.[3]

 28.              In December 2004, journalist Rodolfo Montalbán of the station STC Noticias reported that he had received threats. He reported receiving a phone call on November 21 in which he was warned that he should stop criticizing the mayor of Tegucigalpa.[4]

PRINCIPLES 10 AND 11 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Use of defamation laws by public officials and desacato laws)

 29.              The Office of the Special Rapporteur was concerned at the increase in the number of criminal defamation charges being brought against journalists by public officials or in cases related to publications of public interest.

 30.              On February 18, 2004, journalist Renato Álvarez, of the program Frente a Frente, broadcast on Corporación Televicentro, was convicted of defamation and slander in a proceeding brought by a political leader of the governing Partido Nacional and former deputy Eduardo Sarmiento, who was on a list of 15 persons mentioned in a report disseminated by Álvarez in June 2003. The journalist was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison; however the judges suspended the sentence, conditioned on his conduct during the next five years, in which there must be no recidivism on his part. Accessory penalties were imposed on Álvarez, including the suspension of civil rights such as patria potestas, the administration of his assets, the right to vote, and the choice to run for public office, at the same time as he was ordered to pay personal costs and other expenses caused by the trial. The sentence was appealed to the Supreme Court. Álvarez had been acquitted in another trial, on charges of crimes against honor, in January 2004,[5] over the same publication.

 PROGRESS

 31.              On March 19, 2004, the Supreme Court, through the Chamber for Criminal Matters, ruled in favor of repealing the desacato law, which is found at Article 345 of the Criminal Code, in Honduras, considering that it represents a breach of the freedom of expression by creating a privilege that unnecessarily protects public officials in the exercise of their duties, and violates the principle of equality established in the Constitution.[6] The Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression had requested information from the HonduranState on this case.[7]

32.              On October 26, 2004, a proposed access-to-public information act was introduced to Congress by consensus of the five delegations of political parties represented in the legislative body.[8] The bill was forwarded to a committee that will study it and issue an opinion.[9]

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