A/HRC/41/35/Add.2 33. Counterproductive practices have undermined the implementation of many of the recommendations. The importance of journalists and social communicators was recognized through the creation of a national mechanism for their protection in 2015 and has since been reaffirmed in statements issued by offices of the national system of protection. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the comments made by the President in 2016, at the opening of the OHCHR country office in Honduras, in which he recognized the important role of human rights defenders in promoting and protecting human rights. The Special Rapporteur encourages similar public support for journalists and social communicators, in particular in the light of statements made by public officials against critical and investigative journalists since the visit and smear campaigns targeting them, including online. 34. The protection mechanism established a framework to safeguard journalists, social communicators and others at risk as a result of their work. As at November 2018, the mechanism had granted protection measures to 28 journalists and 23 social communicators. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the creation of the mechanism, but regrets that it has proved ineffective in preventing serious attacks, including killings, on those it was designed to protect. While the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) observatory of killed journalists documented no killings of journalists in Honduras in 2018, it has recorded the killings of 16 journalists since the visit. 5 Efforts to strengthen the mechanism must continue. A differentiated approach must be mainstreamed in risk analysis and incorporated into protective action, including gender-specific and group-specific considerations, along with an awareness of particular risks associated with specific types of work and human rights defence. Lines of communication between beneficiaries and staff of the mechanism must be kept open to ensure that changing protection needs can be met with appropriate responses. 35. The mechanism is one part of a national protection system, the effectiveness of which relies on the constant strengthening of each of its parts. Impunity for all crimes against journalists and social communicators has remained extremely high since the visit, highlighting continued issues regarding the investigative protocols and responsiveness of the bodies charged with ensuring justice in such cases. In that regard, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the creation of the Special Prosecutor for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Journalists, Social Communicators and Justice Officials in March 2018. As at March 2019, the Office of the Special Prosecutor, which has six prosecutors, had received 80 cases, but had yet to bring any charges. The Office requires sufficient funding and staff in order to enable it to fulfil its mandate. It is essential that it develop specialized procedures for the investigation of specific threats. 36. The policing of demonstrations and the harassment of journalists covering protests has remained an issue of serious concern since the visit. When policing demonstrations, State security forces should prioritize the protection of journalists and enable them to carry out their work. While the information provided by the State on human rights education embedded in the training programmes of the national police and the armed forces is welcomed, the events of 2017–2018 suggest that these efforts alone have proved insufficient to mainstream human rights protection within the work of these bodies. OHCHR received credible information attributing 12 of the killings perpetrated during the post-electoral protests to the public order military police (A/HRC/37/3/Add.2, para. 20). The Government must broadly promote peaceful protest as a human right and reinforce the important role played by journalists in monitoring demonstrations. This will require public statements of support for journalists at the highest levels of government, a policy putting an end to the use of military forces to fulfil police functions, and ensuring accountability for these killings. 37. The country’s press remains polarized, and media ownership is heavily concentrated in a few companies. The Government has not demonstrated a willingness to acknowledge and tackle these problems. To the contrary, the Government’s action has tended to undermine the development of a more pluralistic media, as demonstrated in the allocation 5 10 UNESCO observatory of killed journalists – Honduras, available at https://en.unesco.org/themes/safety-journalists/observatory/country/223721.