Critics: Honduras suppressing broadcasters

[Judi Lynn]

Source: UPI

Critics: Honduras suppressing broadcasters
Published: July 11, 2009 at 1:38 AM

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras
, July 11 (UPI) -- Supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya say the new government is silencing broadcast outlets that do not adhere to its line.

Broadcaster Alejandro Villatoro told The Washington Post the military raided his Radio Globo. He said soldiers sabotaged his video surveillance cameras.

"They grabbed me and put me face-down and put six rifles on me, with a foot on my back holding me down," he said. "It was like I was a common criminal."

Zelaya was roused from sleep and put on a plane out of the country. Roberto Micheletti, the interim president, said Zelaya was planning to change the constitution to allow himself to remain in office indefinitely.

Carlos Lauria of the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York said broadcasters in Honduras have been avoiding coverage of other governments that have criticized the coup. They either avoid discussing Zelaya's ouster or describe it as a "constitutional substitution."



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/07/11/Critics-Honduras-suppressing-broadcasters/UPI-52771247290683/

[EFerrari]

1. People who call the coup a coup are subject to arrest per

a report on Global Report early last week.

[Selatius]

2. I was hoping the days of right wing dictatorships in Latin America had ended.

Seems I was flat wrong on that score.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Not for lack of trying on the Bushwhacks' part. They poured $49 million of our taxes

into the rightwing elite in Honduras, through USAID-NED and other budgets, plus multi-millions in military aid, just for this purpose--to prevent even mild reform. Zelaya wanted to convert the US military base to a civilian airport, and engaged in other acts of treason like raising the minimum wage. I think this is their doing. They also funded and organized the white separatists in Bolivia, right out of the US embassy, who rioted, trashed gov't and NGO buildings, seized an airport and wouldn't let President Morales' plane land in their region, blew up a gas pipeline, machine-gunned some 30 unarmed peasants and otherwise created mayhem, this last September, in an effort to secede from the Morales government and create a fascist mini-state in control of the country's gas/oil fields. Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, said they had a three-country strategy for fomenting civil war--Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador. Add Honduras and other countries with leftist presidents where USAID-NED, the International Republican Institute (paid for by us, run by John McCain), DEA, CIA, Pentagon and other budgets have been used to bolster fascist forces and cause trouble. (Items like the rich landowners' strike in Argentina come to mind; also various psyops, military and assassination plots hatched in Colombia against Presidents Chavez and Correa--one of which unfolded early last year--the US/Colombia bombing/raid on Ecuador's territory, which almost started a war between Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela.)

We didn't get a lot of news about these efforts to destabilize and "divide and conquer" these countries and overthrow their leftist (majorityist) governments and democracy itself, of course. It was all muffled and barely reported by our corpo/fascist press. Honduras is just one of a series--one that worked out better than others. Honduras doesn't have oil but it does have considerable strategic importance for what I believe is a Bushwhack plan for Oil War II: South America. It is an indication of the strength of the leftist democracy movement in Latin America that the Dark Lords have had so little success in their dirty rotten schemes, and it's interesting that one of their few successes (Honduras--successful thus far) occurred six months into Obama's term. But there is certainly precedent for the fascists in this country planting time-bombs for in-coming Democratic administrations--the most famous being the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, early in JFK's only term in office.

[L. Coyote]

5. Banana Republic has been replaced with Maquiladora Republic

Cheap labor, high profits in a world that exports jobs.

[formercia]

4. Tips on getting around censorship

This is being used in Iran but could just as easily be applied to Honduras:

http://iran.whyweprotest.net/

[Judi Lynn]

6. US Press Falsely Claims Honduran Plurality for Coup

US Press Falsely Claims Honduran Plurality for Coup
Tuesday 14 July 2009
by: Robert Naiman, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

A supporter of Honduras's ousted president Manuel Zelaya walks past a line of police officers at a road blockade. (Photo: Edgard Garrido / Reuters)

Did a CID-Gallup poll last week indicate that a plurality of Hondurans support the military coup against democratically elected President Zelaya? Yes, according to The Washington Post , The Wall Street Journal , The Christian Science Monitor , and Reuters , which all reported that the poll showed 41 percent in favor of the coup, with only 28 percent opposed.

But in fact the poll showed that 46 percent - a plurality - were opposed to the coup, according to The New York Times , The Associated Press - and the president of CID-Gallup, in an interview with Voice of America on July 9.

As of this writing - Sunday evening, 5:30 pm Eastern time - none of the outlets which reported the poll incorrectly had corrected their earlier, inaccurate, reports.

In reporting the poll incorrectly, the Post, the Journal, the Monitor and Reuters gave the impression that more Hondurans supported the coup than opposed it, suggesting that this meant trouble for the international coalition pressing for the restoration of President Zelaya - which includes Costa Rican President Arias and Organization of American States Secretary-General Insulza, as well as the Obama administration.

Of course, even if a poll had showed a plurality in favor of the coup, that would not legitimize the coup. But the opinion of the population, even if difficult to discern in the repression following the coup, is without question a key fact in understanding the situation. To misreport such a key fact is to substantially misinform. To fail to correct such a mistake compounds the error.

The incorrect report of the poll appears to have originated in the Honduran La Prensa. But the US press should have checked before simply repeating what was in La Prensa, particularly on such an important fact, particularly because the result was counterintuitive.

But perhaps the result was not counterintuitive for these press outlets, and that may suggest a deeper problem - the US press is out of touch with the majority of the population in Honduras, and therefore credulous to results which misreport Honduran public opinion as being much more similar than it is to the opinions of Honduran elites.

More:
http://www.truthout.org/071309X?print

[Judi Lynn]

7. Journalists Federation Condemns Reporters’ Detention in Honduras

Journalists Federation Condemns Reporters’ Detention in Honduras

HAVANA, Cuba, July 13 (acn) The President of the Latin American Journalists’ Federation (FELAP), Juan Carlos Camaño, decried in Cienfuegos, the coup d’état staged in Honduras and the detention of colleagues in that Central American country.
Cuban News Agency

“Telesur and Venezolana de Television’s teams, as well as other correspondents in Tegucigalpa, who have been closer to the events, know that FELAP is there for them,” said Camaño in a meeting with media experts in this central-southern city of Cuba.

Camaño referred to the detention last Saturday of workers from the aforementioned TV networks which have been broadcasting from Honduras since June 28, when military forces of that central American country perpetrated a coup d’état against constitutional president Manuel Zelaya.

On the same day, FELAP issued a communiqué on behalf of its more than 80,000 members in which it repudiated the establishment of a de facto government in Honduras and made the coup perpetrators responsible for the preservation of the life and physical integrity of the colleagues, says the Cinco de Septiembre local newspaper on its online edition.

Camaño also warned over the consequences of Honduras’ coup for the region. "As the journalists’ union in the region we are closely following the events, but if the UN and OAS do not take further actions to frustrate the intentions of the Honduran right wing, the region can turn into a powder keg,” he stressed.

http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/idioma/ingles/2009/0713detenciondeperiodistas.htm