00:00The practice of journalism in Honduras is rapidly becoming dangerous and the atmosphere
00:05is beginning to resemble that of Juan Orlando Hernández's government, when social and human
00:11rights organizations accused him of establishing a dictatorship.
00:15Gerardo Torres Salaya reports from Honduras.
00:19Some journalists asked President Náceres Fura for money because of how expensive everything
00:24is in the country.
00:25I speak for the entire press, if you could encourage us to continue supporting you as
00:30we've already done, gas is expensive, you see.
00:33Have no doubt about it, that's how it's going to be.
00:36Others suffer violence when trying to do their job, as was the case of Eddie Quintero, who
00:42was violently attacked by the presidential honor guard while trying to do his job during
00:47a presidential event.
01:00What happened to our colleague, Eddie, is also proof of this.
01:05We see an inattractable honor guard that does not allow the press to move about and do its
01:11job freely.
01:13As happened in the previously government, which we lived, a very different reality.
01:20And we deeply regret that happened to our colleague, to whom we express our solidarity from this
01:27space.
01:29Ricardo Elner is the director of a newspaper in Honduras and explains how the dangerous situation
01:35for the press has always existed in the country and tends to worsen when the national party
01:41governs.
01:43In a country where speaking out these dangerous practicing journalism is an act of resistance.
01:50In the last 20 years, in Honduras, more than 100 journalists and media workers have been
01:57murdered, with a reported 95% impunity rate, particularly during the period of the narco dictatorship
02:08under the national party.
02:11What is happening today is not coincidence.
02:14The national party is once again in government, and we see how the violence they perpetrate
02:21from within state institutions and generating fear among media workers and journalists.
02:29In recent weeks, new laws have been introduced in the national congress to control social media,
02:35declare anyone who opposes the government as a terrorist, and increase penalties for defamation.
02:41It appears that the groundwork is being laid for a policy of greater social control.
02:49Freedom of expression and the practice of journalism have always been dangerous in two ways.
02:55One is that in this kind of dictatorial governments with social control, there is generally one
03:05press with a narrative favorable to the regime and another press that questions it.
03:12And that's where great danger lies.
03:15In political crisis, the press always suffers from both sides.
03:19On the one hand, control, but on the other, a disguised control through advertising or purchases.
03:27And we have lived through these experiences for many years.
03:30This committee has been around for 44 years, and we have the names of disappeared journalists
03:36on our walls.
03:38Human rights organizations in Honduras are concerned on how very quickly freedom of press and freedom
03:44of speech is being deteriorated in the very first months of this new government that is
03:49quickly reproducing the same behavior that we saw during Juan Juan Hernández Narco dictatorship.
03:56For TeleSUR in English from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Gerardo Torres Zelaya.
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