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The Radio Globo director, David Romero Ellner, stayed overnight at the Honduran station Monday to avoid arrest from police waiting outside with a warrant.
The director of Radio Globo, David Romero Ellner, stayed overnight at the station in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Monday to avoid arrest from police waiting outside with an arrest warrant on counts of defamation, libel, and slander over a corruption scandal he exposed.
The National Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras, Conadeh, requested security measures in the journalist’s favor, who has accused the country's President Juan Orlando Hernandez of corruption and of wanting to kill him.
"In the exercise of our powers and constitutional powers to ensure respect for the right to life and physical integrity of the person, we are requesting security measures to avoid possible irreparable damage" against Romero, said Conadeh Public Defender Roberto Herrera Monday.
Agents of the Police Investigation Directorate (DPI) of Honduras arrived Monday at Radio Globo to fulfill the arrest warrant against Romero Ellner, who has denounced acts of corruption of the government of Juan Orlando Hernandez.
Romero Ellner barricaded himself inside the station while police waited outside to comply with an arrest warrant. He had been waiting for the Honduran justice to suspend the warrant.
The director of the radio station could face a 10-year prison sentence for crimes of libel, slander and defamation by uncovering a political corruption scandal involving the country’s president.
"I have a clear conscience," Romero told El Universal. "I am paying the bill with the threat of going to jail for the simple fact of publishing the truth and letting the Hondurans know in the face of a corrupt regime."
The journalist said he fears for his life and that if something were to happen to him in prison, it would be the responsibility of the Honduran president.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Honduran authorities to drop all charges against the journalist and to cease pursuing criminal sentences against journalists for defamation.
"The galling sentence against David Romero Ellner violates a growing regional and international consensus that defamation should not be a criminal matter," said Carlos Lauria, CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas.
"For more than a decade, courts and legislatures throughout the region have found that civil remedies provide adequate redress in cases of alleged libel and slander."
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