Globo TV programme host Julio Ernesto Alvarado will now be able to avoid serving a 16-month jail sentence by paying a fine of 10 lempiras a day (for a total of 246 US dollars) but the Supreme Court of Justice could still ban him from working as a journalist during the 16-month period.
The court imposed the sentence on Alvarado last December after finding him guilty of criminally defaming Belinda Flores, the former economics faculty dean at the Autonomous University of Honduras.
Reporters Without Borders criticised the court’s sentence in a letter in February to President Juan Orlando Hernández and communication minister Hilda Hernández that was given to the government with the help of the journalist Dina Meza. The communication minister acknowledged receipt of the letter on March 28. The Supreme Court’s judges were also notified of its contents. The next hearing is expected for June 2014.
“We reiterate our rejection of the court’s decision,” said Camille Soulier, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Americas desk. “Preventing a journalist from working is tantamount to censorship and violates the fundamental right to information. We urge the Supreme Court’s judges to quash this sentence and dismiss all the charges against Alvarado without delay.”
