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Coup bodes ill for media regardless of outcome

Reporters Without Borders fears that the hostility of those who staged the coup against President Manuel Zelaya on 28 June and Zelaya's announced return could further aggravate the press freedom situation. The military's already significant level of censorship of the international media and national media that oppose the coup has been compounded by the excesses of the media that back it.

"We fear more news blackouts will be imposed on part of the press for the sole reason that it used the term 'coup d'état' in the first few hours after President Zelaya's removal," Reporters Without Borders said. "The de facto government's promise to arrest Zelaya on his return could also trap those media that plan to cover his return."

The press freedom organisation added: "We can no longer ignore the attitude of certain anti-Zelaya media that are taking the same line as those ousted Zelaya, namely that there has not been any coup. This editorial position has serious jeopardised the safety of reporters and photographers employed by these media during the recent demonstrations and could later lead to a witch-hunt."

Deposed by the army on 28 June and flown to Costa Rica, Honduras' democratically-elected president had originally planned to return to Honduras tomorrow accompanied by other Latin American presidents such as Cristina Fernández of Argentina and Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

But Zelaya postponed his return after the new Honduran authorities threatened to arrest him and the Organisation of American States today gave them 72 hours to restore Zelaya to office. The de facto government has meanwhile extended the curfew by a week, which severely limits the media's ability to cover developments.

Some TV stations such as Canal 8 (which is state-owned), Canal 6 and Canal 11 have resumed broadcasting but their coverage of the coup is either closely controlled or non-existent (see the latest details of the media blackout measures on the Reporters Without Borders website).

The censored international TV stations - Telesur and CNN - can only be accessed on the Internet. Telesur and Associated Press representatives have been arrested. Some pro-Zelaya journalists such as Esdras Amado López of Canal 36 have had to go into hiding. Others, such as Eduardo Maldonado of Maya TV, have requested political asylum.

The military crackdown has spared media that support the de facto government such as the radio stations HRN, Radio Cadena Voces and Radio América, the TV stations Canal 5 and Canal 10 and the dailies La Prensa, El Heraldo and La Tribuna. These media have incurred the wrath of much of the population.

Honduras, latest developments

 Radio América has reported that a fragmentation grenade was thrown at the Tegucigalpa building that houses the station on the night of 30 June but did not go off. The police were summoned and detonated the grenade.

 The San Pedro Sula-based TV station Canal 6 was shut down for 15 minutes while broadcasting footage of the coup. It then resumed its usual programming - sensationalist coverage of crime stories.

 The pro-Zelaya TV station Canal 36, owned by journalist Esdras Amado López, has been shut down since 28 June. Amado has gone into hiding.

 The TV station Canal 11 has not broadcast any reports about the coup since it was raided by soldiers.

 Journalists working for the daily La Prensa were targeted by a demonstration in San Pedro Sula in support of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The police took up positions around the newspaper's office as the demonstrators headed towards it.

 Police units stationed themselves around the headquarters of Corporación Televicentro, the country's leading TV station, on 29 June to protect it against a demonstration by Zelaya supporters.

 Zelaya supporters have criticised the following news media: the San Pedro Sula-based daily La Prensa, the Tegucigalpa-based dailies La Tribuna and El Heraldo, the national TV station Corporación Televicentro, and the national radio stations Radio América et Emisoras Unidas HRN.

 Corporación Televicentro's TN5 news programme reported on the evening of 30 June that police were stationed around the headquarters of Radio América because of the threat of demonstrations and because explosive devices had been thrown at it.

 Zelaya supporters are only allowing the international press to cover their demonstrations and have attacked several freelance journalists working for local media. On 29 June, the head of Canal 42, Emma Calderón, criticised demonstrators for attacking one of her reporters and one of her cameramen, and destroying his camera. A cameraman working for the US TV station Univisión was also attacked in the same manner.

 Eduardo Maldonado, the producer of the Maya TV news programmes "Hable como Habla" and "Interpretando la Noticia", who is also a former presidential candidate and a critic of Roberto Micheletti (the de facto acting president), has sought asylum in the US embassy because he feared reprisals.

 Jhony Lagos, the editor of the monthly El Libertador, told Reporters Without Borders he has received anonymous threatening calls on his mobile phone because of his criticism of the de facto government. He also said that, a week ago, he received a summons for promoting Zelaya's referendum. "I hope that, after this coup, they won't turn on us because we criticised the capitalist system," he said.

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