Journalists associations
All Honduran journalists must be members of the Colegio de Periodistas de Honduras (Association of Journalists of Honduras - CPH) joining and contributing a monthly fee. This requirement, established by law in 1979, is a key characteristic of the Honduran media landscape. In principle, CPH is in charge of maintaining professional recruitment and ethical standards, but political affiliations deeply embedded among journalists have limited their effectiveness in this last aspect. Honduran journalists can be divided in four main categories: Professional journalists, those who are regularly hired by a news outlet and who have passed the professional examination; independent journalists, who do not have a regular position within a news organisation and who generally have their own digital media; practitioners, those who have a temporary position in a news medium or are attending journalism school and have yet to take the professional exam; social communicators who excel in community and alternative media.
It is important to highlight the organisation of the Central American Federation of Journalists and Organisations, which for the first time articulates collegiate journalists of the CPH, regional journalists of the APH and community journalists of the Asociación de Medios Comunitarios de Honduras (Association of Community Media of Honduras - AMCH). This articulation should benefit Central American journalism, and improve the practice of the journalistic profession, especially in a region with much history in common, including contradictions and structural problems.
Besides the formal organisations of journalists, there is the Committee for Free Expression in Honduras C-LIBRE, an association that brings together journalists who defend freedom of expression and the press in Honduras and articulates independent journalists and social activists for the right to communication and freedom of expression. C-LIBRE is in charge of publishing the annual report on Freedom of Expression in Honduras, a document that collects and systematises the situation of freedom of expression, freedom of the press and the human right to communication.