Honduran journalist Adán Benítez (42) was shot in the head on Monday, 4 July, after two individuals intercepted him and stole his belongings. The journalist and TV producer was killed while he was walking home in La Ceiba, Atléntida department, in the northern part of Honduras.

Benítez worked for Radio Makintosh and La Ceiba´s 14 TV and had more than 15 years of experience as a journalist in different news outlets. Although the police has said the motive of the crime was robbery, the local Committee for Freedom of Expression (C-Libre) explained that one week before his assassination, Benítez had called into the “Diario de la Mañana” morning program on Channel 45 to denounce a car theft ring, even noting that he knew some of the criminals, the International Freedom of Expression Xchange (IFEX) reported.

According to the IPI World Press Freedom Review 2010, Honduras was the third most dangerous country for media professionals in the world that year, with a total of 10 journalists killed there. So far, the IPI Death Watch has registered two journalists killed in 2010: Luis Mendoza and Francisco Medina. They were both shot in separate incidents in May this year.

The National Commissioner of Human Rights in Honduras, Ramón Custodio, blamed the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the local government for the attacks on journalists.  The Honduran media reported that since 2003, 21 journalists have died violently, 12 of them in the last 15 months; the majority of the cases have not been solved.

Between 2000 and 2010, at least 39,343 people died violently in Honduras, Custodio said on Wednesday. He expressed his concern about the violence and insecurity in the country which generates a monthly average of 298 victims. The public officer said that the national rate of violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants rose from 37 in 2005 to 77.5 in 2010. That means that the country has almost nine times the average global rate, which is 8.8 according to the Report on Violence and Health published in 2000 by the World Health Organization.