Reply #16: Radio Station Hit by Grenade; Two Persons Injured - broadcast immediately went off air [View All]

[L. Coyote]

Friday, 06 November 2009
Honduras: Radio Station Hit by Grenade; Two Persons Injured
IPI highlights importance of free flow of information and ideas during political crisis
Barbara Trionfi, Press Freedom Adviser - http://www.freemedia.at/startpage/singleview/honduras-radio-station-hit-by-grenade-two-persons-injured/2c1f5d42a7/


Unidentified assailants yesterday threw a military grenade at the offices of a popular Honduran radio station, injuring two people and damaging the radio’s main broadcast booth.

The M-26-type device exploded around 10.30 p.m. local time on the roof of Radio HRN in Honduras’ capital of Tegucigalpa ... assailants launched the grenade from a car, while driving in the street in front of the radio station.

At the time of the attack, HRN was broadcasting the programme ‘Tegucigalpa de Noche’ (Tegucigalpa by Night). Journalists Andres Torres and Avilio Reyes were inside the broadcast booth, together with other members of the staff. When Torres heard the blast of the grenade, he shouted, “A bomb has exploded!” The broadcast immediately went off air..

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According to local news reports, since the beginning of the crisis, about 10 grenades have been thrown at or placed inside the offices of different media outlets. Many of them did not explode.

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Besides these and other episodes of violence, media outlets and journalists have also endured legal harassment .....