Urgent Action 4-30-10

URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA

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http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
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For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa09410.pdf

Note: Please write on behalf of these persons even though you may not have received the original UA when issued on April 26, 2010. Thanks!

30 April 2010

Further information on UA 94/10 (26 April 2010) - Fear for safety

HONDURAS
Journalists, including:
Ricardo Oviedo Reyes (m)
Jorge Otts Andersen (m)
new name: Gerardo Chevez (m)

A Honduran journalist who received a death threat on 21 April has been followed by two men on a motorbike. Shots have also been fired outside his home. Another journalist has also told Amnesty International of death threats he has received in recent weeks.

On the morning of 28 April, Ricardo Oviedo, a television journalist and President of the Association of Media workers of Colon (Asociacion de Comunicadores de Colon) in northeastern Honduras, was followed as he drove from the office where he had attended a meeting by two men on a yellow motorbike without number plates. The same men have previously followed him home and have been seen circling around the area outside his house on a motorbike. Ricardo Oviedo was so alarmed that he stopped his motorbike and sought shelter in the office of an NGO, instead of continuing his journey. During the previous evening, shots were fired outside Ricardo Oviedo's home. He had received a death threat on 21 April (see previous UA).

Amnesty International has just received news of threats against another journalist. On 14 April, Gerardo Chevez, a reporter for radio station Radio Progreso, based in El Progreso municipality, northern Honduras, received a threat via text message (SMS). The threat referred to the killing the previous day of radio journalist Luis Antonio Chevez Hernandez in the northern city of San Pedro Sula. It read "We're finishing off the Chevezes. Next we're going to start with the priests" ("Estamos acabando con los Chevez. Luego vamos con los curas"). Gerardo Chevez is not related to Luis Antonio Chevez Hernandez, but shares the same family name. The director of Radio Progreso is a Jesuit priest, Padre Ismael Moreno. Gerardo Chevez had previously received a text message death threat on 29 March, which read: "Ha ha ha we're fucking up the journalists who talk shit like you" ("ja ja ja le estamos quebrando el culo a los periodistas a la mierda como vos"). Gerardo Chevez has recently reported on events organized by the opposition Resistance movement, and also on alleged local corruption.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On 1 March, Joseph Hernandez Ochoa, a 26-year-old student and journalist was shot dead in Tegucigalpa. He was the first victim in the recent spate of killings of journalists. His colleague, journalist Carol Cabrera, was injured in the same attack. On 11 March, radio journalist David Meza Montesinos was killed by unidentified assailants who had followed his car and shot him as he drove home. He had been investigating the issue of drug trafficking and had received threats by phone for several weeks. Three days later, Nahum Palacios, news director for TV station Channel 5, was murdered while driving through the city of Tocoa, Colon department. He had investigated a land dispute in the Aguan region and had also reported on drug trafficking. On 24 July 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had requested that Honduras immediately take steps to protect him, but the authorities took no action. Victor Manuel Juarez and Jose Bayardo Mairena both worked for the news program Asi es Olancho (This is Olancho) in Olancho department, eastern Honduras. They were shot from another vehicle on 27 March as they drove along a road in Olancho.

Following the coup d'etat on 28 June 2009 there were closures and occupation of media outlets by military personnel, the beating and physical attack of journalists, and journalists, particularly those investigating organized criminal activity, human rights violations or speaking out about the coup d'etat, have been subjected to threats and intimidation. Amnesty International documented violations during the coup d'etat in a report released on 27 January 2010 titled "Honduras: Recommendations to the new Honduran government following the coup of June 2009".

A new government led by Porfirio Lobo took office on 27 January 2010. Now, with six killings of journalists in just two months, the government must take urgent and immediate action to protect journalists receiving threats, prevent further deaths and investigate and bring to justice the culprits of these murders.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- publicly condemn killings and intimidation of journalists and make a commitment to protect journalists;
- act immediately to provide all necessary protection to Ricardo Oviedo and Gerardo Chevez and other journalists under threat, in accordance with their wishes;
- carry out an urgent, thorough and impartial investigation into the killings of the six journalists and the threats made against other journalists, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice;
- implement all of the orders for protection from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.


APPEALS TO:

President
Sr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa
Presidente de la Republica
Casa Presidencial
Boulevard Juan Pablo Segundo
Palacio Jose Cecilio del Valle
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 232 1666
Salutation: Dear President

Attorney General
Sr. Luis Alberto Rubi
Fiscal General de la Republica
Lomas del Guijarro, Avenida Republica Dominicana
Edificio Lomas Plaza II
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 221 5667
Salutation: Dear Attorney General


COPIES TO:

NGO
Comite de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)
Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301
Apartado Postal 1243
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 220 5280 (say "tono de fax")

Ambassador Roberto Flores Bermudez
Embassy of Honduras
3007 Tilden St. NW Suite 4M
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 966 9751
Email: lprado@hondurasemb.org


PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 11 June 2010.

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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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