Honduras ( Press Group Denounces Murder of Honduran Reporter )

PARIS – Reporters Without Borders on Monday denounced the murder of Honduran reporter Juan Carlos Argeñal, whose death raises to three the number of journalists killed in Honduras so far this year.

Argeñal, a correspondent for Honduras’ Globo Radio and TV, had received serious threats of bodily harm after uncovering a case of corruption at a local hospital, and he was gunned down outside his home last Saturday.

The other two reporters killed this year also worked for or collaborated with Globo Radio and TV, the Paris-based press freedom watchdog pointed out.

“Globo is one of the few national broadcasters to criticize the June 2009 coup d’état,” Reporters Without Borders, known by the French initials RSF, said in a statement.

Globo’s “staff and reporters in the field have paid a high price for this for the past four years. It has included military occupation of their premises, confiscation of their equipment and targeted murders. The mere fact of working for Globo exposed Argeñal to danger,” RSF said.

Two-thirds of the 38 reporters slain in Honduras over the past 10 years have been killed since the coup that toppled President Mel Zelaya, RSF said.

“Given the almost complete collapse of the rule of law, will this latest murder remain unpunished like nearly all the others? Does it signal the start of a new crackdown at a time when the country’s future seems more uncertain than ever?” RSF said.

Honduras, the most dangerous country in the world, remains unsettled after the Nov. 24 presidential election.

While authorities say ruling party candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez won, Zelaya’s Libre party has cried fraud, insisting that former first lady Xiomara Castro garnered the most votes.