Journalist and human rights activist Dina Meza threatened again [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Journalist and human rights activist Dina Meza threatened again
Published on Friday 27 April 2012.

Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the threats received by journalist and human rights activist Dina Meza, the latest in a long list of acts of intimidation against journalists in recent months. The targets have included two other women journalists after they organized a protest in defence of free expression outside the presidential palace last December that was dispersed violently.

“We firmly condemn the repeated threats to Meza and other journalists and human rights defenders in Honduras and we urge the authorities to take whatever measures are necessary to deal with this situation, which limits freedom of expression and obstructs human rights work,” Reporters Without Borders said.

Meza is a member of the Committee of Families of Detainees and Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH) and works with the Defensores en Línea website. As a journalist, she often covers land conflicts in the Bajo Aguán region. She has reported being the target of repeated threats and acts of intimidation since February.

On 22 February, she received two SMS messages signed “Commando Alvarez Martinez” (CAM), a pseudonym often used for sending threats to human rights activists and journalists after the 2009 coup d’état. One said: “We are going to burn your ‘pipa’ (vagina) with caustic lime until you scream and then the whole squad will have fun. CAM.” And the other said: “You’ll end up dead like the Aguán people, there’s nothing better than screwing whores.”

More:
http://en.rsf.org/honduras-journalist-and-human-rights-27-04-2012,42392.html