After the newspaper La Prensa denounced at the beginning of January that the Ortega regime will put its stolen printing press to work in August 2021, the Inter-American Press Association (SIP) stated that it was “concerned” because it assures that the dictatorship will use it as its new “propaganda weapon”.
He affirmed that the new use that the Nicaraguan government will give, both of the facilities and of the newspaper of the oldest newspaper in the country, is “improper, illegal and unconstitutional.”
Related news: Dictatorship will occupy the printing press that was confiscated from the newspaper La Prensa
The organization warned that the government plans to use the newspaper’s printing press and facilities to open an official media outlet to publish its government propaganda.
Recently, the directors of La Prensa denounced that they had been unofficially informed that the Ortega-Murillo regime rehired personnel specialized in managing the commercial printing press. In addition, it acquired inputs for the operation of these equipments.
Faced with this new action by the dictator Daniel Ortega, the president of the YepMichael Greenspon, stated that he was “alarmed” because in addition to the fact that the Ortega administration illegally confiscated and stripped the newspaper’s assets, “now it has the nerve to use the media’s assets for propaganda purposes.”
The also global director of Printing Licensing and Innovation of The New York Times, United States, added that the new attack against La Prensa is not surprising, since he assures that this is the “nature of a regime that imprisons journalists for invented crimes , forces journalists into exile and has confiscated property and real estate for their benefit.”
“They want to deceive the people”
For his part, the president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, indicated that “a regime like Ortega’s is not willing to create a public medium for citizens to receive impartial and transparent information about the government acts.”
Likewise, the journalistic director of La Voz del Interior, from Argentina, Jornet, added that the new attacks by Ortega are “a new attempt to use the propaganda machine and lies in order to continue creating their own narrative to deceive the people.” .
Related news: Ortega accuses four La Prensa workers of “treason”
On the other hand, the IAPA recalled that since its founding, La Prensa has suffered closures, imprisonment of managers and journalists, “in addition to the bombing and burning of its facilities, censorship, the customs blockade of its supplies and the murder of its director, Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, on January 10, 1978».
«Article 14 of the Nicaraguan Constitution prohibits the confiscation of property and real estate. The commercial value of the assets usurped from La Prensa is estimated at around 20 million US dollars. In its building, the regime installed the José Coronel Urtecho Cultural and Polytechnic Center, under the responsibility of the National Technological Institute (Inatec)”, stressed the Inter-American Press Association.
La Prensa was founded on March 2, 1926. Its last general manager was Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, who on March 31, 2022 was sentenced to nine years in prison for the crime of money laundering, amid criticism from humanitarian organizations. and defenders of the freedom of the press who consider him innocent.
The Nicaraguan justice also has behind bars two of its directors, the former candidate for the Nicaraguan Presidency, Cristianan Chamorro, and his brother Pedro Joaquín.
