Honduras: UNESCO head condemns deadly attacks against journalists

The head of the United Nations agency tasked with upholding press freedom today spoke out against a recent shooting two journalists in Honduras, resulting in one of their deaths, calling it an attack against all people of the nation.

Joseph Hernandez Ochoa and Karol Cabrera were shot down on 1 March on the way to Ms. Cabrera’s home in the capital, Tegucigalpa, according to the non-governmental organization International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX).

Mr. Ochoa, the host of the “Encuentros” programme broadcast on Canal 51 television, was killed in the attack, while Ms. Cabrera, who was involved in youth education programmes for the State-owned Canal 8 television station, was seriously injured.

Police and the Honduran Security Secretariat said that Ms. Cabrera, who also worked for Radio Cadena Voces, was the target of the attack. Having received death threats, she had been under police protection.

The police officer guarding Ms. Cabrera was at her home, where she had asked for protective services to be provided. Her daughter was killed in the same street in December that her mother was attacked on this week.

“The attack that took Mr. Ochoa’s life and left Ms. Cabrera seriously injured is an attack against all of the people of Honduras that must not go unpunished,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“It is an attack against their basic right of freedom of expression, an attempt to silence the open debate that underpins democratic society,” she emphasized, calling Honduran authorities to bring the perpetrators t justice.