RWB Americas correspondents voice support for colleague Dina Meza, still threatened in Honduras

August 3, 2014

Reporters Without Borders’ correspondents in the Americas have written to the Honduran authorities urging them to finally provide protection to RWB’s correspondent in Honduras, journalist and human rights defender Dina Meza, the target of repeated threats.

Honduran Interior Minister Arturo Corrales
Secretaría de Estado en el Despacho de Seguridad
Aldea el Ocotal, Antiguo local de la Academía Nacional de Policía
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Paris, 29 July 2014

Dear Interior Minister,

We, Reporters Without Borders’ correspondents in the countries of North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, express our solidarity with our colleague Dina Meza, RWB’s correspondent in Honduras, who has been threatened with being tortured and killed. We call for her and her family, which is also in danger, to be given the protection that has been recommended by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

An organization that defends freedom of information and has consultative status with the United Nations and UNESCO, Reporters Without Borders already drew your attention to the persecution of Dina Meza in a letter dated 11 July.

This journalist and human right defender has made repeated requests for protection. On 20 June, she wrote to the interior ministry’s special prosecutor for human rights. After getting no reply, she sent another request for a quick reponse to the office of the prosecutor-general’s office on 8 July. We urge the authorities to act quickly so that Dina Meza can continue her work as a journalist and activist without fearing for her life or the lives of the members of her family. She still has not received any protection at the time of writing

We also urge you to ensure that the investigation into the origin of this intimidation is carried out in a thorough and independent manner and that a progress report is presented as soon as possible, so that those responsible for these threats do not go unpunished.

The threats against Dina Meza constitute a grave violation of freedom of information, and we find it unacceptable that one of our colleagues is exposed to risks of this kind without a response from the government.

We thank you in advance for the attention you give to our request.

Sincerely,

Camille Soulier
Head of the Reporters Without Borders Americas desk

Emiliano Gullo
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Argentina

Edgar Ramos Andrade
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Bolivia

Linda Straker
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in the Eastern Caribbean and Barbados

Mauricio Weibel
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Chile

Fabiola León Posada
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Colombia

Raúl Silesky
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Costa Rica

Ramón Santos
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in the Dominican Republic

Eric Samson
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Ecuador

Ileana Alamilla
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Guatemala

Jean Pharès Jérôme
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Haiti

Balbina Flores Martínez
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Mexico

Hélène Roux
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Nicaragua

Rolando Rodríguez
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Panama

Luis Jaime Cisneros
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Peru

Carlos Dominguez
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Salvador

Mirtha Villa
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Uruguay

Elsa Cecilia Piña
Reporters Without Borders correspondent in Venezuela


For more information contact:
Reporters Without Borders
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Website: www.rsf.org