The “Ojo en Nicaragua” Observatory of International PEN He denounced that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has deepened the “suffocation of free expression” in the country with the closure of independent media outlets, the exile of journalists and the closure of non-governmental organizations. In addition, he echoes the exhibition of 27 political prisoners and the complaints of their relatives.
The report includes the closure of the media of the Catholic Church, radio stations and local channels; the persecution against the religious and the exile of the journalist David Mendoza, who was ordered by the Ortega Murillo regime to take his television channel off the air in the Río Blanco cable company, department of Matagalpa.
«The Nicaraguan journalist David Mendoza, owner of the closed television channel RB3, from the northern town of Río Blanco, left Nicaragua at the end of August and requested asylum in the United States, according to what was reported to the media. Mendoza said that he crossed the Rio Bravo (border between Mexico and the United States) on August 30 with his wife and his 10-year-old son, “he denounces.
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«The director of the popular RB3 channel denounced last August 2 the closure of his television station by the Institute of Telecommunications, as part of the closure of almost a dozen independent media outlets. Mendoza founded his channel 18 years ago, which became a benchmark for a vast rural population in northern Nicaragua », he adds.
The complaint also documents the case of the cancellation of Radio Stereo Fe’s transmission license, which was administered by the Diocese of Estelí after the publication of a forceful statement by the clergy of priests who condemned the dictatorship’s repression of the Catholic Church. . The station broadcast religious content in the northern part of the country.
“Telcor’s argument was that the station’s frequency “was personally authorized” to Monsignor Francisco Valdivia Lazo, who died in 2021, for which he can no longer continue using the radio spectrum,” the organization highlighted on its website. .
On International Journalist’s Day, Nicaragua reports the closure of more than 50 media outlets, the confiscation of several of the closed media facilities, a murdered journalist, six imprisoned communicators and the exile of more than 170 press men and women .
