The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) denounced this Wednesday that the government of President Daniel Ortega created “a new information desert in the interior of the country,” after recently canceling at least 11 local radio stations and four cable TV channels.
The IAPA stressed that most of the “confiscated” stations were located in the department of Matagalpa -northern Nicaragua- and belonged to the Catholic Church, critical of the Sandinista administration of Daniel Ortega.
The organization pointed out that this is “part of a campaign that seeks to eliminate all vestiges of an independent press and represents a new advance on freedom of worship and thought in that nation.”
“With a single blow, the Nicaraguan government created a new information desert in the interior of the country, where the closed stations provided a valuable community service to thousands of people. It is obvious that they intend to do away with all vestiges of the independent press,” he said. the president of the IAPA, Jorge Canahuati.
To cancel these means of communication, Ortega used the National Institute of Telecommunications and Post Office (Telcor) and police agents who violated some premises to take the transmission equipment, as happened in the city of Sébaco.
The director of Telcor is Nahíma Díaz, who is the daughter of the head of the National Police, Francisco Díaz, a prominent member of the family made up of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice President, Rosario Murillo.
“The Ortega government is not only an enemy of press freedom, but also now seems to suppress freedom of worship and thought in Nicaragua,” said the president of the IAPA’s Commission on Freedom of the Press and Information. , Carlos Jornet, who added that “the Police resorted to excessive use of violence against the closed stations.”
“It indicates the high degree of impunity enjoyed by the Nicaraguan authorities in the most remote regions of the country,” Jornet stressed.
Once again, the IAPA called on the international community “so that it does not abandon the pressure for freedom of the press and democracy in Nicaragua.”
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