A TV news editor has been killed in Honduras, just days after a radio reporter was killed and only two weeks after the murder of a TV presenter.

Nahúm Palacios Arteaga, 36, the news director for television channel Canal 5 in Aguán and host of a news programme on Radio Tocoa, was shot dead on Sunday 14 March in Tocoa, Colón, in northern Honduras, local media reported. Another person travelling in the car with him was severely wounded, and a cameraman riding in the back was grazed by a bullet, Honduran daily newspaper El Tiempo reported. According to the Associated Press the car was riddled with 42 bullet holes.

In a statement sent to the International Press Institute (IPI), President of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Alejandro Aguirre, (also editor of Spanish-language newspaper Diario Las Américas – based in Miami, Florida) said: “There can be no doubt that we face one of the most tragic moments in the history of the Latin American press.”

Robert Rivard, chairman of the IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, added: “There is tremendous frustration with the high level of violence, among all the human rights and press freedom defense organisations.”

According to the Honduran daily newspaper, El Heraldo, Palacios was killed instantly but his body was found dead in the street, whilst his two killers fled the scene. IAPA reported that Palacios had received death threats in the weeks leading up to his death.

“The International Press Institute is saddened by the murder of Nahúm Palacios Arteaga and sends its condolences to his family and colleagues,” said IPI Press Freedom Manager Anthony Mills. “He is the third journalist to be killed in the country in March alone and IPI is gravely concerned at the rising tide of deadly violence against journalists in Honduras. Journalists should be able to work free from the fear of assault or death. We urge the Honduran government to immediately investigate the murders, and prosecute those responsible.”

Palacios is the third journalist to be killed in Honduras this year.  David Meza Montesinos, a reporter at radio station El Patio for more than 30 years, was shot and killed on 11 March while driving home in the northern Honduran coastal city of La Ceiba. Joseph Hernández Ochoa, 24, a journalism student at the University of Honduras and a former entertainment presenter on 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. According to IPI’s Death Watch figures, it is the second most dangerous place in the world for journalists so far this year, behind Mexico.