A radio reporter has been killed in Honduras, less than two weeks since an attack on two other journalists, which left one dead and another injured.

David Meza Montesinos, a reporter at radio station El Patio for more than 30 years, was killed on 11 March while driving home in the Honduran coastal city of La Ceiba.  His car was shot at from another vehicle, causing Meza, 51, to lose control and crash into a house, near his own home.

According to the Honduran daily newspaper, El Tiempo, Meza had received death threats three weeks before the shooting for his coverage of drug traffickers.  However, police refused to confirm that his death was due to his work, stating they were still investigating.

Meza’s funeral in La Ceiba was attended by thousands of locals, many of whom were calling for justice, according to another Honduran newspaper, La Tribuna.  The newspaper called Meza a “journalist of the people.”

“The International Press Institute is saddened by the murder of David Meza Montesinos and sends its condolences to his family and colleagues,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “It would certainly appear as though the attack against Mr. Meza was prompted by his work as a journalist and we call on the government to find and prosecute the perpetrators of this terrible crime.”

Meza is the second journalist to be killed in Honduras this year.  Joseph Hernández Ochoa, 24, a journalism student at the University of Honduras and a former entertainment presenter on the privately-owned Canal 51 TV station, died while travelling with fellow journalist Karol Cabrera when their car was fired on 36 times by men in another vehicle on Monday, 1 March.

The Central American country has seen a steep increase in violence since the coup d’état in June 2009. A total of five journalists were killed for their work last year, making Honduras the third most dangerous country in Latin America. It shared the number six spot with Russia as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, according to the International Press Institute’s World Press Freedom Review 2009.