The Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) concluded this Friday that in Nicaragua, governed by the Sandinista Daniel Ortega for 16 years, “freedom of expression and press does not exist”, and warned that some 93 Nicaraguan journalists went into exile in 2022 .
“In Nicaragua there is no freedom of expression and press. The last voices of critics, independent journalists, have been silenced”, argued Cenidh, which is a member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in its annual report on the situation of human rights in Nicaragua.
That agency stated that last year “the Ortega-Murillo regime continued its repressive strategy against anyone who raised their voices criticizing its criminal policies, increased harassment, searches, arbitrary arrests, criminalization, and prosecution of journalists.”
“Some even had to leave Nicaragua forcibly to safeguard their personal integrity, their freedom and their lives,” he denounced.
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In July, according to the report, there were police operations at journalists’ residences and media facilities, raids, confiscation of media, confiscation of work equipment, displacement, and forced exile.
THE CASE OF THE PRESS
Cenidh, which was outlawed as an NGO by the Sandinista Executive in the framework of the sociopolitical crisis that Nicaragua has been experiencing since April 2018, highlighted the case of the newspaper La Prensa, which last July denounced the state persecution against its team after they provided coverage of the expulsion of 18 nuns from the Mother Teresa of Calcutta Order.
“During that period, faced with the imminent threat of arrests, chain attacks and attacks, the entire newsroom (of La Prensa) had to go into exile. More than 15 people (journalists, cameramen and editors) were forced to leave the country irregularly,” he noted.
He recalled that the Prosecutor’s Office accused four La Prensa workers, including two drivers who were imprisoned last July, plus a journalist and an administration assistant, for crimes considered treason.
Also “the regime consummated the total robbery of the facilities of La Prensa”, after the Attorney General of the Republic, Wendy Morales, delivered the documents of the building to the National Technological Institute.
NICARAGUA DENIES ENTRY TO JOURNALISTS
Likewise, Cenidh mentioned that the Sandinista Executive prohibited Nicaraguan journalist Luis Felipe Palacios, correspondent for the EFE Agency in Managua, from entering the country when he was trying to return to Nicaragua after a business trip in Panama.
“The case of Palacios has not been the only one during 2022. In mid-June the Ortega Murillo regime prohibited journalist Tifani Roberts, a correspondent for the US network Univisión, from entering the country,” he said.
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Cenidh warned that not only journalists have been prohibited from entering their own country, but also human rights activists, feminist leaders, academics and scientists.
On the other hand, Cenidh pointed out that “another violation of freedom of the press and expression was the closure of Catholic media, a situation that is also part of a context of permanent persecution against the church and its clergy.”
Other outlets closed last year were Trinchera de la Noticia, Radio Vos and Radio Darío.
Likewise, last September Nicaragua joined Venezuela by blocking the cable signal of the CNN en Español news channel.
Cenidh warned about Ortega’s desire to “close all the spaces for which his criminal government is criticized.”
