Venezuelan journalists leave Honduras after harassment; domestic media backs coup

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Newswatch

Venezuelan journalists leave Honduras after harassment; domestic media backs coup
Date: July 15, 2009

http://www.newswatch.in.nyud.net:8090/files/files/images/20090715honduras01.jpg

Supporters of Honduras ousted president Manuel
Zelaya march toward the U.S. embassy in
Tegucigalpa July 14, 2009. The United States
and the Costa Rican mediator in Honduras'
political crisis urged the rival sides on
Tuesday to give talks a chance after the ousted
president threatened to abandon dialogue
if he was not reinstated quickly.

A group of Venezuelan journalists with the regional television network Telesur and the state-owned station Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) left Honduras on Sunday after being detained and harassed in the capital, Tegucigalpa, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported.

"We are gravely concerned that the media environment in Honduras has become increasingly polarized while the interim government has become more intolerant," said CPJ Americas Senior Programme Coordinator Carlos Lauría. "The interim government claims it acted legally in assuming power. But this kind of crude action targeting a critical media outlet is a clear violation of international law."

On Saturday evening, six reporters from Telesur and VTV were detained by Honduran police in the parking lot of their hotel and taken to a police station in Tegucigalpa, the local and international press reported. All were released early on Sunday after Venezuelan diplomats intervened, but were told not to leave the hotel, the press said.

Fearing for their safety, the group of reporters left Honduras later that day. Also on Sunday, another group of VTV journalists left Honduras. The Venezuelan news agency Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias said that the reporters had been expelled, the Associated Press reported. Honduran authorities denied the expulsion of foreign reporters, and said that the government is not censoring news coverage.


Read more: http://www.newswatch.in/newsblog/4375

[MisterP]

1. in the 80s, Honduras had exactly one paper that was nationalist before 1988: San Pedro Sula's Tiempo

the rest welcomed neoliberalism and military control
Hondurans had the choice between two identical parties (Lib and National), with few leftist movements and only a smallish reformist wing (Christian Dems, some Libs)
however, national pride was often stung by reminders that Honduras was the first "banana republic" and was "prostituting" itself out to Reagan's military and economic policies; even conservatives got mad when GIs created South-Korea-style hooker-towns and apparently brought drug-resistant gonorrhea

[troubledamerican]

2. When the Christianist faction in the Pentagon stages the U.S. coup, U.S. media will cheer.

Dan Rather himself will get back on CBS to shake his finger at "reckless bloggers".

America's already got Globovision multiplied by 1000.

(And by the way, wonder how Globovision is liking the Honduran coup... Globovision LOVES coups).

[Peace Patriot]

3. President Obama needs to dry up all US taxpayer funding of the Honduran military

and USAID-NED funding of the rightwing groups in Honduras, including John McCain's US taxpayer funded "International Republican Institute" and all other aid to this coup, withdraw the US ambassador and shut them down. Enough is enough!

$40+ million US tax dollars to rightwing groups in Honduras, in USAID-NED-IRI funds alone! (--according to Evo Gollinger's FOIA request documents).

This is "our" coup--as always. If President Obama and Sec of State Clinton hope to create a respectful, cooperative relationship with the new leftist leadership of Latin America--in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala--they need to act NOW to disassociate themselves from this rightwing coup. They have already delayed too long, and every day that goes by, with this coup still in power, not only are more activists at risk of imprisonment, torture and death (several deaths already, and more than 600 political prisoners), but also, Obama and Clinton are losing ground in creating a new and better Latin American foreign policy. That is very likely what this coup is all about--Bushwhack sabotage of Obama's foreign policy--or at least part of it. (Another part may be Honduras' strategic location for a Bushwhack-planned Oil War in South America; and, of course, global corporate predator "free trade" and war profiteer interests are at issue in Honduras). (One of Zelaya's "crimes" in the eyes of Honduras' oligarchy was raising the minimum wage.)