Nicaraguan justice accused four workers of the newspaper La Prensa –whose entire editorial staff went into exile three months ago- of the alleged crime of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity,” the media outlet reported on Monday.
Among the defendants are two newspaper driverswho were arrested on July 6 after a journalistic coverage by La Prensa of the expulsion from the country of a group of nuns.
A journalist was also accused, as well as a worker from the administrative area, who are exiled, therefore an arrest warrant was issued against them.
The accusation was presented by the prosecutor Heydi Estela Ramírez on September 29 and the State of Nicaragua is listed as a victim, however, the information was released much later, due to the lack of access to public information, as It has been expressed on multiple occasions by the expert in judicial matters, Yader Morazán.
The Chief Editor of La Prensa, Eduardo Enríquez, told the voice of america that this action seeks to “criminalize journalistic work” so that “silence reigns and only what Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo want is heard.”
The judge in charge of the case is Nalia Nadezha Ubeda, who has also carried out legal proceedings against a group of collaborators of Bishop Rolando Álvarez, a religious critic of Ortega who is under house arrest without any known information. accusation against him.
This action is added to other measures taken by the administration of President Daniel Ortega, who has been in power for more than 15 years, and who has closed down other critical media outlets, such as 100%Noticias, and the weekly Confidencial.
The general manager of La Prensa, John Lawrence Holman He is being held in Nicaragua’s maximum security prison, known as El Chipote, after being sentenced to nine years in prison for the alleged crime of money laundering.
After Holmann’s arrest, the newspaper’s newsroom was taken over by the National Police on August 13, 2021, and a year later the government confiscated its facilities and opened a public entity.
According to Enríquez, the accusation against this group of collaborators “is outrageous” and in the case of the drivers he assures that “they have been unjustly detained for no reason… and they are inventing crimes that follow the same line that they have followed other people” .
“They are going to be sentenced to long years in prison, causing irreparable damage to their lives due to a simple whim of a dictatorship,” said Enríquez.
A crisis for journalism
Nicaragua has been experiencing a political crisis since 2018, when protests arose against President Daniel Ortega, which the president classified as an “attempted coup.”
Since then, Ortega has closed dozens of television, radio and print media, which he has accused of “lying” to cause “instability” in his government.
However organizations that defend press freedom, such as Reporters Without Borders, which compiles the index of the state of journalism in the world, says that the country’s independent journalists “endure a nightmare of censorship, intimidation and threats.”
Nicaragua scores low on the World Press Freedom Index, ranking 160 of 180 countrieswhere 1 has the best media environment.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
