More than half of the countries in the Americas saw a sharp decline in their press freedom status due to repression and increasing violence against journalists, according to the findings of Freedom of the Press 2013. Freedom House and the Metropolitan University of Honduras in Tegucigalpa hosted a discussion on May 22 to examine the increasingly restrictive media environment in Latin America in light of the recently released report.
Freedom House is alarmed by the ongoing crackdown on the media in Honduras; on February 5, journalist Cesar Silva and cameraman Samuel Aguilera from the television station Globo TV were attacked by participants of a transportation protest that they were reporting on near the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa. Authorities must conduct a thorough investigation into the attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Nearly two years after a wave of popular uprisings began in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a lack of substantive institutional reform has left states struggling to maintain democratic achievements, according to a new Freedom House report. The findings illuminate reform failures that have contributed to recent violence across the MENA region.
The brutal killing of journalist Jose Noel Canales highlights the persistent danger for media in Honduras. Freedom House calls on Honduran authorities to thoroughly investigate the circumstances of his death and to not rule out that the killing might be linked to his journalistic work
