Press group criticizes proposed law in Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The Inter-American Press Association is criticizing a proposed law in Honduras that would punish internet search and discussion platforms.

Honduras’ congress is debating a bill to create a government commission that would have authority to recommend sanctions for a broad array of online offences, including hate speech, terrorism and pedophilia.

The IAPA noted Friday that those offences are already punishable by existing laws.

But the chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information expressed concern that under the proposed law, the “responsibility for an offence is not applied to the user who commits it but to the intermediaries, whether it be the search engine, the social media or digital platform.”

The group suggested the law might lead to censorship.