At least 6 cases of violations of press freedom were perpetrated against journalists and one against a media outlet in Nicaragua last November, according to a report released Monday by the regional network Voces del Sur.
In the report, Voces del Sur denounces that a journalist was the victim of threats on social networks “on two occasions”, and that “for the fourth consecutive month” another informant, identified as Yahaciela Barrera, was “victim of attacks and threats for her work independent news”.
The regional network highlighted in a statement that it was also able to document that 4 journalists “were forced into exile due to the difficulty that exists in the country to practice their profession and the danger that it implies.”
Among the cases of journalists in exile, the study by the regional network mentions that of the delegate of the EFE news agency in Nicaragua, Luis Felipe Palacios.
Palacios “narrated that Immigration and Immigration authorities prevented him from returning to his country, after having made a trip to participate in the commemorative acts of the 50th anniversary of the presence of EFE in Central America held in Panama.”
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The report adds that the journalist Palacios was in Panama and boarded a flight with a stopover in Miami, and it was in the United States where the Avianca airline notified him that the Nicaraguan authorities had denied him entry.
In this sense, he emphasizes that “on November 30, the EFE Agency published what happened and later Palacios confirmed his exile with an emotional message on his Facebook account, where he said goodbye to his country.”
The document states that “riot police and police forcefully entered the facilities of Radio Mi Voz, located in León, on the morning of November 18, 2022,” and that since then it has been “off the air.”
In addition, the report by Voces de Sur details that the Promoter of Press Freedom in the department of Carazo was informed that 3 citizens “were prosecuted for the crimes of conspiracy to undermine national integrity and propagation of false news through The technologies of the information and communication”.
The report identifies the accused as Sandra Del Carmen Acevedo Díaz and Allan Sebastián Bermúdez, originally from Diriamba, who were sent to trial on November 21; and Karla Patricia Vega, from the municipality of El Rosario, who remains detained “without access to defense and without information for her family.”
END REPRESSIVE LAWS TO JOURNALISTS
In the report, entitled “Independent Press of Nicaragua: between fear of denouncing attacks and resistance in the office,” Voces del Sur expresses to the State of Nicaragua “the need to put an end to the use of repressive laws against its dissidents”, and points out that making use of information and communication technologies “is not a crime, but a citizen’s right”.
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He recalled that “regardless of all the repressive measures that are applied, the news, the complaints and all the irregularities that are committed against the citizens and the independent press, Voces del Sur will continue to register and denounce violations of Press Freedom.”
LIMITATIONS TO INFORMATIVE WORK IN COSTA RICA
In the document, Voces del Sur states its concern about the decrees approved in November by the Costa Rican government and in force since December 1, which, it denounced, “modify the measures and conditions that until then this country had in favor of refugee applicants.
These new provisions, the NGO indicated, affect both Nicaraguan journalists and activists, who despite being in exile “continue working and denouncing the arbitrary acts that occur in Nicaragua,” and who now, “with the restriction on leaving the country, they will be forced to modify the form of denunciation”.
