More than 20 organizations of journalists in Latin America have joined their voices to demand the release of journalist Víctor Ticay, who is serving 54 days in prison. The communicator was arrested on the morning of Holy Thursday, after he had covered a procession the night before in the municipality of Nandaime, where he is from.
Víctor Ticay, currently imprisoned in the District Three of Managua delegation, is accused by the Daniel Ortega dictatorship for the alleged crime of propagating false news and for conspiring to undermine national integrity.
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The communicator, who was the correspondent for Channel 10 in the municipality of Nandaime, in the department of Granada, could face a sentence of 10 years in prison and even lose his nationality.
“According to public information, the journalist was detained and held incommunicado for about 40 days and during that time he was in a legal limbo; They neither charged him nor released him, nor did they inform his family about his whereabouts or the reasons for his detention. Ticay is a collaborator of Channel 10 and director of the “La Portada” page where he has documented violations of freedom of expression and of the press in Nicaragua, “the journalist organizations point out.
Repression against communicators
In addition to Ticay, two more journalists have been prosecuted in the last month for the dictatorship. All have been indicted for allegedly spreading false news.
On May 3, the director of 12 Noticias and also a correspondent for Channel 10, Hazel Zamora, and William Aragón, a former correspondent for La Prensa in Estelí, were arrested in Bluefields. courts to sign as an alternative measure imposed by the Ortega judges.
On March 31 of this year, a report by the United Nations Group of Experts (UN) detailed the seriousness of the attack on human rights in Nicaragua and confirmed the need to continue international vigilance in this matter.
“The report exposes evidence of widespread human rights violations perpetrated by the Nicaraguan authorities, including homicides, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, deportations and politically motivated persecution, which constitute crimes against humanity. It also concluded that the abuses are ‘the product of the deliberate dismantling of democratic institutions and the destruction of civic space,’” add the journalistic unions.
They demand immediate release
In February 2023, the regime stripped the citizenship and confiscated the assets of 317 critics. In addition, on April 18, in the framework of the anniversary of the repression against opponents of the government, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called for the restoration of democracy hand in hand with a process that guarantees access to justice to lay the foundations of democracy. “The guarantee of the exercise of freedom of expression is essential.”
“The signatory organizations demand the immediate release of the journalist Víctor Ticay, as well as the lifting of the restrictive measures against Hazel Zamora and William Aragón, and we urge the Nicaraguan authorities to put an end to the repression against dissident voices in Nicaragua. The organizations will continue the work of monitoring and making visible the attacks on freedom of expression in Nicaragua,” they said.
The signatory organizations are: Regional Alliance for Free Expression and Information, AMARC ALC, Article 19 Office for Mexico and Central America, PEN Center for Cuban Writers in Exile, Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), IFEX-ALC, Fundamedios, PEN Argentina, PEN Bolivia, PEN Chiapas Pluricultural, PEN Chile, PEN Ecuador, PEN Guadalajara, PEN Guatemala, PEN International, PEN Nicaragua, PEN Paraguay, PEN Peru, Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua – PCIN, Protection International Mesoamerica and Voces del Sur (YOU).
