A journalist has been shot dead in the Central American country of Honduras, the 21st deadly attack on the media in the past three years.
Adonis Felipe Bueso Gutierrez, 24, was leaving an Internet café with two cousins when he was shot, said Longino Becerra of the Committee for Freedom of Expression (C-Libre).
Bueso Gutierrez was a journalist for Radio Stereo Naranja, a Christian station. Police deemed the incident a theft gone wrong but the victim had said before his death that the violence in his city was escalating, said Becerra.
"The possibility that (his death) was connected with his work cannot be ruled out," Reporter Without Borders said in a statement.
"In each of these cases that has plunged the profession of journalism into mourning, the same impunity applies, whether they are attributable to the country's high crime rate or the political violence spawned by the coup."
Another journalist was attacked for the second time in less than two months. Selvín Martínez, a broadcast journalist, was shot on his motorcycle by an unidentified attacker but was left unhurt. Martínez suspects the attacker to belong to the criminal gangs known as “maras.”
Reporters Without Borders condemned the attack and called for protection measures for Martínez’s safety.
Earlier in March, Doha Centre for Media Freedom highlighted the murder of journalist Fausto Evelio Hernandez who was killed by a machete-wielding attacker.
Twenty one journalists have been killed in Honduras since the overthrow of president Manuel Zelaya on June 28, 2009, according to Reporters Without Borders. None of the murders have been solved.
Source: AFP, DCMF
