5 October 2007

Alert

Court declares inadmissible lawsuit against five journalists for "damage to reputation"


Incident details

Renato Álvarez, Rossana Guevara, Melissa Amaya, Juan Carlos Funes, Carlos Mauricio Flores

journalist(s)

acquitted

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(RSF/IFEX) - Several Honduran judges have unanimously rejected complaints made against five journalists for "damaging his reputation", by the director of the Honduran telecommunications company, Hondutel, Marcelo Chimirri.

The judges ruled that there were insufficient legal reasons for a case to be brought against Renato Álvarez and Rossana Guevara, of Televicentro, Melissa Amaya and Juan Carlos Funes, of Radio Cadena Voces, and Carlos Mauricio Flores, editor of the daily "El Heraldo".

The journalists had published articles relating to alleged fraud involving international phone calls revealed by the Mexican daily "El Universal". Judges in San Pedro Sula, North-West of Honduras, were due to rule shortly on a suit against Nelson Fernández, managing editor of the regional daily "La Prensa".

The National Human Rights Commission told RSF that this legal decision constituted a "victory for freedom of expression in the face of a wave of intimidation aimed at abolishing the right to the truth and to information."

"We knew that we had committed no crime, we have published news on a piece of information having repercussions abroad and which should be the subject of a thorough investigation," Melissa Amaya told the worldwide press freedom organisation.



Source:

Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
France
rsf (@) rsf.org
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51
 

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More on this case

Journalist flees country for second time following new death threats 10 December 2007 Radio station director, television reporter flee country following death threats 2 November 2007 Journalist shot at, another threatened, six more face lawsuit for reporting on alleged corruption 1 October 2007

Honduras

Another member of journalists' collective receives death threats 24 January 2012 Peasants' rights activist assassinated in Colón 23 January 2012 Lawyer shot to death after reporting on human rights violations 19 January 2012 See all alerts: Honduras


 
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