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Anti-coup media resume broadcasting, but closely controlled

Radio Globo and Canal 36 television, two stations that have been the main media opponents of the 28 June coup d'état, were allowed to resume broadcasting on 19 October, three and a half weeks after the de facto government used a decree suspending civil liberties to close them down and confiscate their equipment.

Sources at Radio Globo, which had managed to keep operating as a clandestine web radio, nonetheless said the station has had to censor itself since it resumed broadcasting. At the same time, Radio Cadena Voces (RCV), a station owned by a coup supporter, has dropped three programmes hosted by women's groups that allowed government opponents to speak on the air.

"Neither the official lifting of the 28 September state of siege nor the resumption of broadcasting by Radio Globo and Canal 36 means that the rule of law has been restored in Honduras," Reporters Without Borders said. "Decree 124-2009, a measure published in the official gazette on 7 October, allows the authorities to suspend any programme or media 'fomenting social anarchy' and, without saying so openly, is targeted at those that oppose the coup."

The press freedom organisation added: "This provision constitutes a real threat to pluralism, an incentive to self-censorship and an additional mechanism for polarising the media and public opinion. The situation is all the more disturbing now that the dialogue attempt between deposed President Manuel Zelaya's emissaries and the de facto government has collapsed."

The day that Radio Globo and Canal 36 resumed broadcasting, a Honduran freelance journalist told Reporters Without Borders that IVOSA, the company that operates RCV, had decided on 16 October to drop three RCV programmes that were presented by feminist organisations.

They were "Tiempo de hablar," presented by the Women's Rights Centre (CDM), "La Burallanga," presented by the Women's Study Centre-Honduras (CEM-H) and "Entre Chonas," presented by the "Visitación Padilla" Women's Committee.

Reporters Without Borders has obtained copies of INVOSA documents that endorse the withdrawal of the first two of these programmes on the basis of Decree 124-2009 provisions combating "attacks on constitutional order." INVOSA is owned by former President Ricardo Maduro Joest, whose conservative National Party backed Zelaya's ouster in June.

Topics: Freedom of speech, Freedom of information, Freedom of expression,