Tegucigalpa, Aug 16 (IANS/EFE): A broadcast journalist has been murdered in Honduras, becoming the seventh journalist to be slain in the Central American country this year, a police source said.

The incident occurred Thursday night in Yoro province where Nery Soto, 31, was gunned down by unknown persons in front of his home.

The journalist directed a television programme on Yoro's Channel 23.

Authorities have ruled out robbery since the killers took none of Soto's belongings, not even the cash the journalist had in his pocket, the police source told Efe news agency Friday.

No arrests have been made so far.

According to the office of the country's human rights commissioner, 47 journalists and media workers have been killed since November 2003.

The last journalist to be killed was Herlyn Espinal, whose body was found July 21 at a ranch between the town of La Barca and the municipality of Santa Rita in Yoro province.

Honduras remains the most violent country in the world, with around 90 homicides per 100,000 people, according to a report released in June by the Assessment Capacities Project, an initiative of several international NGOs.