Carlos William Flores was shot dead on September 13 as he and a colleague were returning home from a reporting trip in northern Honduras.
According to news reports, unidentified individuals on a motorcycle shot at the pair while they were in the town of Tegucigalpita in the northern state of Cortes.
Flores was taken to a nearby medical center where he was pronounced dead. The woman, who was identified only by an alias in news reports, was injured.
Flores and his colleague had been reporting on a story related to agriculture in Corinto, a town near the border with Guatemala, for the local Canal 22 television station.
Flores worked for Canal 22 in Cuyamel in the northern state of Cortes near the Guatemalan border, and directed a news program, “Sin pelos en la lengua” (Without Mincing Words), which reported on regional news, according to reports.
The Honduran Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre) reported that Flores had been critical of agricultural and mining companies operating around Cuyamel.
Deputy commissioner Luis Osavas, a police spokesperson, identified the journalist in a statement as Carlos William Juárez, but local media outlets as well as international entities, including UNESCO and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, have reported his last name as Flores.
According to the Honduran newspaper La Prensa, Flores also owned a pool hall where a police officer was killed two months ago. Osavas told AFP on September 13 that authorities are investigating if there is any connection between Flores’ murder and the police killing at his business.
Honduran police did not immediately announce any official line of investigation or publicly discount his work as a possible motive.
CPJ did not find reports that Flores had received threats for his reporting.