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One journalist murdered, another seriously injured in attack

A Honduran journalist was shot dead in an attack that also injured another journalist on 1 March, report the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Joseph Hernández Ochoa, host of the "Encuentros" programme broadcast on the privately owned Canal 51 TV station, was killed while travelling with fellow journalist Karol Cabrera in her car in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Gunmen fired at Cabrera's vehicle and both journalists were shot several times. Cabrera works for state-owned Canal 8 TV station and the privately owned radio station Radio Cadena Voces (RCV).

Cabrera is an outspoken journalist who supported President Manuel Zelaya's removal in the coup last June, and was likely the target of the attack. She had previously received threats that were allegedly from members of the movement against the coup d'état. She had received police protection for three weeks prior to the shooting. And at the time of the attack, the police officer guarding her was at her home, as she requested.

According to RSF research, three Honduran journalists were killed in 2009.