Jennifer Ávila (El Progreso, Honduras, 33 years old) does not deny that things can be different. Although she is critical of the situation in Honduras and some forms of journalistic activity in her country, she does not lose faith in her profession. His appointment came in the heat of resistance to the 2009 coup that toppled then-President of Honduras, leftist Manuel Mel Zelaya. Since then he has dedicated his career to denouncing government abuses, corruption and ties to drug trafficking.
On Friday evening in Bogotá, he received the Gabo Award for Excellence 2023 for his work. According to the jury, Ávila embodies “the courage, ethics and conviction of thousands of young journalists on the continent”. Hours before accepting her award, the journalist spoke to EL PAÍS at Modern Gymnasium in the Colombian capital.
Going against the current – as the media company he co-founded in 2017 calls it – Ávila recalls not feeling the same illusion as thousands of Hondurans when Xiomara Castro, wife of the 2009 ousted president, came to power in 2022. Although he was after the Putsch defended democracy, he had never sympathized with Zelaya. Now she denounces that the President and her husband were trying to consolidate a “propaganda machine”.
The Honduran journalist started on Radio Progreso – which denounced the coup – and continued on Contracorriente. He has withstood all sorts of dangers, pressures and threats without losing his conviction, although he has seen other colleagues enjoy greater recognition and visibility in the state-co-opted media. “It’s necessary to do independent journalism because we don’t want to live in closed countries, in oppressed societies,” he says.
Questions. In other interviews, he said the 2009 coup was crucial for his early days as a journalist. Because?
Answer. I noticed two things. The first was that the military shut down Radio Progreso because its journalists said there had been a coup. I remember people gathered to protect the gate when the radio opened again… I understood how important it is to have a medium that tells you what is happening in such a difficult time. The second was the photo that appeared in the main print newspaper, La Prensa, following the killing of a boy during the protests. The blood had been wiped off, which was important to show that the military was firing real bullets. This made me realize the damage the media can do to society.
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Q What was your attitude towards the ousted President Manuel Mel Zelaya?
R I was against the coup, but it bothered me that they told me I was a melist. It’s not that I liked him: he proposed a consultation on constitutional reform and, deep down, he intended to remain in power. But that wasn’t the point. Importantly, they denied us the opportunity to attend a consultation and at least say that we didn’t want the President re-elected. Moreover, militarization took us back to a time of restraint that we had not experienced and that we had only read about in history books. I was outraged that they said the coup was to preserve democracy. It was absurd.
Q Fourteen years later, the images released this week by the Honduran President of prisoners piled up in their underwear are shocking and resemble those of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador. How can this be explained with a government that presented itself as progressive?
R Last year we said that the Xiomara Castro government was close to Bukele on security issues, that they had received advice and that they wanted to copy the model. Unfortunately, people like that. [el modelo de El Salvador]. Unfortunately, acting in a populist and authoritarian manner is very successful in our region because our citizens do not understand democracy and human rights. But the contradictions are taking their toll on the President, whose popularity is very small compared to her expectations. The photos are the same, but the effect they create is not the same: the people of Honduras see that every two months you change your mind, that there is no certainty about what to do.
Q Isn’t it a contradiction in terms to say that populism succeeds but that the people are taking their toll on Castro?
R She didn’t start off with those narratives like Bukele, who brought the military into Congress right at the start. Xiomara promised there would be no militarization, and suddenly she militarized. Let’s see how useful it is.
Q What is the media situation with the return of the Zelaya to power?
R My uncle was a journalist who worked for Manuel Zelaya’s government. I didn’t know how propaganda worked then, but now I understand what they were trying to do with the media machinery back then. By the time the coup took place, Mel Zelaya was already beginning to unify the narrative through the public media. Now we go back to that time, they do the same thing: Mel started a very personal outlet called Poder Ciudadano and now there is another called Poder Popular to support Xiomara.
Jennifer Avila, in Bogota. Diego Cuevas
Q They are very critical of the journalists who were satisfied with this state propaganda machine. How do you practice your profession in this context?
R Government media machinery has done great harm to democracy. And when you say that you feel a little lonely, no one in the guild likes you. I don’t want to speak out of arrogance, like I’ve never made a mistake, but journalists need to be aware of the damage we can do. At university it bothered me a lot that people said we were the fourth estate, that we were made to believe that we were above everyone else. You should have told us how to use this privilege in the service of society.
Q In an opinion piece, he also mentions that the public is caught between this propaganda and independent journalism that “repeats bad news.” How are stories told in Honduras without always being tragedies?
R We need to count the bad things and denounce those who wield power in harmful ways. But we must learn to stop bullying people. This can create even more terror and involves depriving people of the ability to make their own decisions. There are also stories of resistance, of people defending their territory and building other types of communities. We can highlight that: resilience and survival. Perhaps people tell you their stories to add meaning to their fight for justice, not to bully themselves.
Q What mistakes do you think you made?
R When I was just starting out, I interviewed some young people in a gang-controlled neighborhood. They told me very sensitive things about signs of gang control and I did not appreciate the damage that could be done to these young people, although I kept their identities confidential. I provided specific details that were relevant and went too far because I didn’t delve as deeply into the context of the neighborhood, perhaps for speed or because I didn’t know how the gangs worked. That forced me to do more research and do more contextualization.
Q The minutes of the Gabo Award jury state that you embody “the courage, ethics and conviction of thousands of young journalists on the continent”. How do you feel about this?
R Repression has done us great harm and we must break the silence and understand what is happening to us in order to change reality. That’s why it’s necessary to do this journalism, because we don’t want to live in these closed countries, in oppressed societies. We are also needed as educators in this society: we not only talk about the bad, but also about democracy, about how the judiciary works. We give people tools to be trained in a democratic and civic culture. We are necessary.
Q Has the internet strengthened independent journalism?
R The fundamentals of journalism are the same on every platform: accuracy, ethics, editorial promises. The beauty of the internet is that you can use many formats, from images to audio to text. But it’s not free as many believe. The internet is not ours, we have to adapt to the algorithms of social networks that sometimes separate us. We have to counter this with creativity.
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Jennifer Avila, in Bogota. Diego Cuevas
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