Reporters Sans Frontières

Published on 13 November 2009

Geovanny Domínguez, the editor of the Tegucigalpa-based daily Diario Tiempo, gave an interview to Reporters Without Borders during the joint visit it made to Honduras with six other international press freedom organisations from 1 to 7 November. The report of this joint visit will be released on 23 November.

See the video of the interview, with English subtitles:

Founded in 1970 and with a current print run of 70,000, Diario Tiempo is owned by businessman and politician Jaime Rosenthal Oliva, a member of the Liberal Party and supporter of Manuel Zelaya, the elected president who was ousted by a coup d’état on 28 June.

Diario Tiempo was the only one of the four national dailies to consistently criticise Zelaya’s removal. At the same time, its extensive coverage of the coup and its aftermath included the statements being made by both sides.

In the interview, Domínguez talks about the polarisation of the media that resulted from the coup and how this has hurt the entire profession’s image as well as threatening the safety of journalists.

“There is a danger that this situation could deteriorate even further in the run-up to the 29 November elections, which the de facto government has organised in an attempt to make people forget the coup and to resolve the crisis,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The controversy logically surrounding these elections will inevitably have repercussions for the media and could expose journalists to more targeted reprisals.”

As well as Reporters Without Borders, the organisations that took part in the international press freedom mission to Honduras during the first week of November were the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), FreeVoice, International Media Support (IMS), the World Association of Newspapers WAN), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Article 19.

The end of that week saw the collapse of the “San José-Tegucigalpa” accord that was meant to resolve the crisis resulting from the coup.

The footage of demonstrations seen in the video was filmed by Reporters Without Borders on 5 November, after the postponement of the announced restoration of Zelaya as president and formation of a “government of national unity and reconciliation,” consisting in practice of leading coup supporters and headed by de facto President Roberto Micheletti.