FAIR: USA Today, AP Mislead on Honduran Coup

[Downwinder]

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3909

[Judi Lynn]

1. This is something to save for future reference. FAIR is always impeccably accurate .

Thank you for this tool, Downwinder.

[EFerrari]

2. Someone just asked me for a link like this. Thanks!

[Judi Lynn]

3. New wave of censorship in response to deposed president’s return

New wave of censorship in response to deposed president’s return
Published on 23 September 2009

In the same country
7 September 2009 - Media in coup storm

17 August 2009 - In new wave of violence against media, de facto regime “reaps what it sowed”

29 July 2009 - Gag on media getting steadily tighter in month since coup
Ousted President Manuel Zelaya’s reappearance in Tegucigalpa has prompted a new wave of censorship of the national and international press. The de facto government’s response to the news of his return and his appeal to the army to “turn its rifles on the enemies of the people” has been to impose an immediate curfew, keep the international press away from the pro-Zelaya demonstrations and do everything possible to silence the few independent and opposition media still operating.

“This clampdown on the media in Honduras is unacceptable,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We condemn the attempts of the de facto authorities to ensure that a serious situation goes unreported and we urge them to respect the rights of Honduran citizens, especially the right to free expression and free movement.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Deprived of news and information, the international community is not even able to find out how many people have been injured or arrested in the course of the military’s operations.”

The entire neighbourhood around the Brazilian embassy, where Zelaya and his wife have been holed up since 21 September, has been militarised with the aim of “sweeping the area clean” of demonstrators and news media,” as a police officer put it. The international media, including news agencies such as Reuters and the Associated Press have been forced to leave the neighbourhood.

The government headed by acting President Roberto Micheletti is gagging the national press, especially two pro-Zelaya broadcast media, Canal 36 television and Radio Globo, which tried to provide live coverage of the events around the Brazilian embassy including the crackdown on demonstrators.

The head of Canal 36, Esdras Amado López, said the station has not been broadcasting since yesterday when its power supply was disconnected. Radio Globo, the only broadcast media to cover Zelaya’s arrival in Tegucigualpa, said it has been forced repeatedly to stop broadcasting. Both media say the aim is to prevent them covering the dispersal of the demonstrators around the embassy.

More:
http://www.rsf.org/spip.php?page=article&id_article=34562

[Downwinder]

4. Here is another comment on journalists.

A fund raising plea, but well worth the read.

Help Narco News Keep Instilling the Work of Journalists with a Sense of Purpose By Belén Fernández

http://narconews.com/Issue60/article3826.html