Nicaraguan journalist Israel González Espinoza, who is in exile in Spain, assured that “social networks have become a refuge” for the independent media in Nicaragua, because from there they have managed to continue informing the population, despite the persecution that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has imposed against journalists.
During the Journalism and Liberties Forum held in Madrid, Spain, this Thursday, October 20, González Espinoza denounced that “freedom of the press” became “the first death of the repression” of the Ortega Murillo regime against the social protests of April 2018.
He pointed out that the Nicaraguan dictatorship has taken over most of the media and has closed the space for independent media to practice journalism.
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“90% of the media are in the hands of the Ortega regime,” so “social networks have become a refuge from which (you can) continue doing journalism within the country,” he said.
In his speech, the journalist Israel González also denounced that the Ortega administration has “censored five media outlets under the pretext that they were generating false news.”
Likewise, he demanded greater synergy within the Latin American press, together with the authorities, to “come out in defense of human rights.”
According to the Catholic weekly Alpha and Omegain the Journalism and Liberties forum, with which the Voices of Latin America initiative was launched in Spain, which tries to give a voice to the American diaspora in Madrid; Journalists from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and also from El Salvador participated.
The speakers agreed that «being a journalist today is a risky profession. There are politicians in many countries who are trying to limit the freedom of the press.”
