The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) reported that during its semi-annual meeting, which will be held virtually from April 19 to 21, the situation of violence, harassment and aggression against freedom of the press and expression suffered by the countries of the Americas, including Nicaragua, where half a dozen journalists, commentators and defenders of freedom of the press and expression are imprisoned.
“The meeting will serve to denounce the abuses of the freedoms of the press and expression in all the countries of the Americas,” they highlighted in a press release released this Saturday, April 2.
The document states that at said meeting “crimes against journalists will be analyzed with greater emphasis, thirteen of them occurred in the first quarter of this year, and the deficiency of protection systems.”
Relatives of imprisoned journalists will participate in the meeting
The IAPA highlighted that the Nicaragua’s situation, at the event, “will attract the attention of the regional vice presidents of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information” of that organization, due to the seriousness of the situation experienced by journalists and media in the country.
He revealed that at this semi-annual meeting, the IAPA assembly will approve a “declaration and action plan that will reverse the excesses of the Ortega-Murillo regime’s dictatorship.” He also mentions that between The guests at the event are “relatives of the imprisoned journalists who are going to give their testimony in a special space.”
The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has criminalized and imprisoned half a dozen journalists, commentators, and defenders of freedom of the press and expression in Nicaragua. Among those imprisoned are: Miguel Mora, owner of the busy channel 100% Noticias; the sports writer and blogger Miguel Mendoza; the general manager of the newspaper La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Holmann; and political commentator Jaime Arellano.
Cristiana Chamorro, a former presidential candidate, and former deputy Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, both former directors of the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation (FVBCh), an organization recognized for defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in Nicaragua, were also criminalized.
The IAPA has publicly expressed its rejection of these arbitrary sentences. On March 31, he denounced the “rage” of the Ortega regime against Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, general manager of La Prensa, sentenced to nine years in prisondisqualification from exercising his profession and a fine of 3.2 million dollars.
Jorge Canahuati, president of the IAPA, and Carlos Jornet, president of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, condemned “the savage Ortega-Murillo dictatorship that uses justice and invented crimes to lock up, under a supposed blanket of legality, who he calls opponents.”
In the last four years of sociopolitical crisis, the Ortega regime has unleashed a permanent persecution against journalists and the media. Communication media, such as the newspaper La Prensa, 100% Noticias and Confidencial, were raided, occupied and confiscated.
Journalists have been attacked, harassed and robbed by police and government officials. Dozens of these press men and women have even gone into exile to avoid being imprisoned and criminalized for practicing their profession in Nicaragua.
