The dramatic situation of the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa, whose entire draft is forcibly exiled, is unprecedented, the special rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Pedro Vaca, admitted on Wednesday.
The rapporteur, who is in Costa Rica, held a meeting with a large group of reporters who exposed the panorama that journalists in Nicaragua have been experiencing since 2018, when the protests against President Daniel Ortega began.
“In the almost 25 years that the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the IACHR has had, I have not found a record that in such a short period of time, practically an entire newsroom of a media outlet communication, in addition to other journalists, are forced to leave the country in search of exile,” Vaca said.
The special rapporteur pointed out the organization’s concern and expressed “his emphatic condemnation.” At the same time, he expressed his solidarity with the people who suffer in the midst of what forced exile imposes.
The newspaper the pressthe oldest in Nicaragua with almost 100 years of existence, decided to remove all personnel from the country since the beginning of July, after the government of Daniel Ortega arrested two workers of said media outlet and raided the homes of two collaborators who participated the coverage of the expulsion of a group of nuns weeks ago.
Vaca expressed in this regard that defending press freedom “is not defending the privileges of some people, but defending the right of citizens to be informed and I think that is what is at the heart of this humanitarian crisis.”
He stressed that despite this situation, the Nicaraguan press, even from exile, has made an effort to continue reporting “despite the purpose of silencing, which is absolutely clear and evident.”
“Since I have been in the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, I have had to notice the intention, the interest, the desire of the Nicaraguan press to cover their country and, as the months go by, despite the complaints, despite the fact that journalists put an enormous effort into covering what is happening in Nicaragua, there are beginning to be symptoms of frustration and I am concerned because very often you see courage, resilience and this is something that has to be heard by the international community”, he added. Cow.
The rapporteur explained that for security reasons he preferred not to talk about the numbers of exiled journalists, however he indicated “that the numbers of reporters who have left the country are high.”
He also stressed that the case of the press he was neither unique nor isolated. It is a fact that is added to the persecution of supplies, closure of spaces, people detained.
“We strongly reject this persecution, this hunt for journalists and encourage the protection mechanisms of the international community to come to the protection of journalists.”
Vaca recalled that in November 2021 the Ortega government did not even want the elections where he won a new term to be observed, preventing the foreign press from entering to cover the elections. He too, he said, was denied accreditation to the independent local press.
“(Daniel Ortega) did not even want to have competitors because all the people who could have different views and participate in those elections were arrested. Naturally, there is a deepening of the deterioration of the institutional framework, a concentration of power in a single gaze and a press that is going through absolutely critical days and weeks,” Vaca lamented.
Nicaragua has been experiencing a political crisis since 2018. Dozens of journalists have left the country, after President Ortega accused them of “lying” and sent to the National Assembly laws considered punitive to imprison those who they consider to be broadcasting “false news.” or “cause anxiety in the population”, as established in the Cybercrime Law.
Currently in Nicaragua, some four people linked to the media are in prison, according to human rights organizations.
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