FEPALC: Journalist killed in Honduras, the first fatal media casualty of Latin America in 2008

A few hours after the International Federation of Journalists, IFJ, disclosed as an ‘unlimited tragedy’ the cases of journalists and media workers recorded in 2007, on the first day of 2008, Latin America mourned its first casualty.

José Fernando González, 35, Director of the radio station Radio FM Mega 92.7, was murdered in the city of Santa Bárbara, Trinidad, 150 kilometers northeast of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Three individuals arrived in a vehicle with no license plates and violently entered the radio station on the afternoon of January 1st.  The criminals shot González in the head, back and abdomen.

González began working in radio at the age of 10, with his father, in a municipality radio station of Santa Bárbara, starting a promising career in the country.

González worked in several radio stations in San Pedro Sula, such as El Mundo, and also stations in the United States, helping out Honduran artists and journalists arriving to the North American country for work reasons.

In 2002, established once again in Santa Bárbara, he gained great support from journalists and media workers for his strong defense of Honduras and its people, and they showed their respects at his final resting place in the cemetery in Trinidad.

Priests Mario Adin Cruz and Pedro Lorente, officiated the ceremony and called upon authorities to investigate the crime, and society to return to God and “stop the culture of death and violence in Honduras”.

José Fernando González was going to wed next May to girlfriend Claudia Castillo.

The Federation of Latin American and Caribbean Journalists, FEPALC, affiliated to the IFJ, joins the religious community, coworkers and the Union of Workers of the Press Industry and similar industries of Honduras (SITINPRES), in their demands for justice in this murder case, full explanation of the crime and to authorities to capture those responsible.