The International Press Institute (IPI) urges authorities in Honduras to thoroughly investigate a brutal attack on a television journalist and bring those responsible to justice.

According to local reports, Joel Coca, 34, correspondent for Canal 11 and coordinator for the “Más Noticias” (More News) television program on the MultiCable television station, was attacked by two unidentified assailants just outside of the MultiCable studios in the Caribbean port city of Puerto Cortés on the evening of Wednesday, July 17. Coca said that two men, one carrying a baseball bat and the other a pistol, were waiting for him as he left work.

Coca said that he was packing video equipment into the trunk of his car when he was struck in the back. He said that the trunk of the car may have saved his life as the assailants were aiming for his head. The journalist suffered several broken fingers and a broken rib in addition to serious bruises as a result of the attack and spent several days in a hospital. Coca also told a local newspaper that the attack was directly linked to his journalistic work and that he had previously received death threats for reporting on local corruption.

“While they were both hitting me, one of them yelled at the other to shoot me, but the other responded by saying that they had just been sent to beat me up and they then left the scene,” Coca told a local newspaper the day after the attack. “I’m grateful to be alive right now,” he added.

Just six days after the attack, Coca and his family reportedly requested assistance to leave the country from the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH). Coca also told investigators that one of his assailants–the one who declined to pull the trigger–was found dead last weekend. He said that he had not considered leaving the country before, but that the assailant’s reported murder made him fear for his life and the safety of his family. According to reports, the assailant’s body was found with a note indicating that he had been killed because “he did not do what he was asked”. Coca has now reportedly requested political asylum in both Canada and the United States.

Hugo Maldonado, vice president of CODEH, said that the organisation would do everything in its power to help the journalist and that the situation facing journalists in the country is extremely concerning, especially given the breakdown of security across the country.

“We are deeply troubled by the attack on Joel Coca and urge the Honduran authorities to investigate this crime and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice,” IPI Director of Communications and Public Relations Anthony Mills said. “Journalists should never have to seek political asylum simply for doing their jobs,” Mills added

Meanwhile, doubts have emerged surrounding the alleged suicide-by-poisoning of a well-known Honduras television journalist, Aldo Calederón, on July 15. At the time of his death, Calderón had reportedly been investigating the recent murder of another television journalist, Aníbal Barrow.

María Luisa Borjas, ex-chief of the Unit of Internal Affairs of the Honduran National Police, told the freedom of expression NGO, Comité por la Libre Expresión (C-Libre) that she did not believe Calderon’s death was a suicide, instead alleging that the journalist’s death was connected to his investigation of Barrow’s murder. Borjas cited witness reports that Calderon collected, claiming that police had been inside Barrow’s vehicle the day of his kidnapping, as evidence of her theory, adding that “in this country we can definitely not trust the authorities”. She also said that an article appeared briefly in an online newspaper claiming that Juan Carlos Bonilla, Chief of Police and lead investigator in the Barrow murder, had ordered investigators to clear the scene just after they found Barrow’s body on July 9.

Honduras had become one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. According to IPI’s Death Watch 25 journalists have been killed in the country since the 2009 coup that removed former president Miguel Zayala from power. In addition, according to a 2011 United Nations study, Honduras now has the world’s highest official murder rate, at 86 homicides per 100,000 residents.