A journalist and human rights activist has been found dead in Honduras. Erick Martínez Ávila, who worked for the Honduran LGBT group Kukulcán, was found dead in a roadside ditch on 7 May. The journalist was reported missing on 5 May, and had not been seen in public since he attended a demonstration with the LGBT community on 1 May. The motive for the murder remains unclear, but it is believed the journalist was strangled.
Notorious hacking group Anonymous targeted Virgin Media yesterday, to protest the blocking of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay. The attack forced the internet service provider to take its website offline for one hour. Around the time of the attack, a Twitter account which has been linked to the group read:
#Anonymous have just taken down #VirginMedia website again because of their involvement in the #Censorship of The Pirate Bay #TPB #OpTPB
— Anonymous UK (@AnonUK) May 8, 2012
Virgin Media began preventing access to the site after a ruling from the High Court last month. Tweets from other accounts also suggested that TalkTalk had been targeted by Anonymous, though this has not been confirmed.
An Iranian cartoonist has been sentenced to 25 lashes after drawing a caricature of a MP. Cartoonist Mahmoud Shokraye depicted local conservative MP Ahmad Lotfi Ashtiani dressed as a footballer. Iranian politicians were recently criticised for interfering in sports in the country. The politician took offence at the cartoon and sued the artist for insulting him, resulting in a Markazi province court sentencing Shokraye to lashing. Many have taken to social media to express their outrage at the sentence.
A radio journalist was murdered in the Philippines on Tuesday. Nestor Libaton, a news reporter for Catholic-run radio station dxHM in Mati City, was shot several times by men on a motorbike. The journalist was on the back of a motorbike being driven by his co-anchor, Eldon Cruz, after the pair had conducted an interview in a nearby city. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) believe the incident occurred as a result of the journalists work. Libaton is the fourth journalist to be killed in the Philippines since the start of 2012.