The Nicaraguan Independent Journalists and Communicators (PCIN) movement denounced this Monday that at least four journalists and two media outlets have been harassed by the National Police, as part of the fourth anniversary of an uprising against the government of President Daniel Ortega. .
“We alert the international community and the people of Nicaragua that the independent press continues to be under attack,” the PCIN said in a statement.
“Today alone, at least four colleagues have been reported under siege, as well as two media outlets,” he explained.
The PCIN, which has warned of “a further deterioration” of freedoms in Nicaragua, “especially freedom of expression and the right of association,” indicated that they are on “permanent alert” because “independent Nicaraguan journalism faces a repressive escalation.
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Nicaraguan opposition organizations and other civil groups commemorated this Monday the fourth anniversary of the demonstrations against the Ortega government, which began with social security reforms and later became a demand for his resignation because he responded with force .
SITUATION OF THE PRESS IN NICARAGUA
In this context, the PCIN announced that next Thursday it will remember three Nicaraguan Caribbean journalists “who have lost their lives due to repression” or to covid-19, including Ángel Gahona, who was shot dead while covering the demonstrations. anti-government protests that broke out in April 2018.
Last March, that union rejected the “arbitrary” government decision to cancel the legal status of the Association of Nicaraguan Journalists “Dr. Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal”, made up mostly of communicators critical of the Sandinista government.
Also to the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, dedicated to the protection and promotion of freedom of the press and expression, and which closed a year ago in order not to submit to the Foreign Agents Regulatory Law.
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In addition, he demanded that the Executive return the communication media that he keeps busy, including the newspaper La Prensa, the oldest in the country.
The authorities keep busy the newsrooms of the television channel 100% Noticias, the digital newspaper Confidencial and the newspaper La Prensa, which stopped circulating in its printed version after its registration and now circulates via the Internet.
PRISON, EXILE AND CLOSURE OF THE MEDIA
Likewise, the PCIN demanded the “immediate freedom” of communicators Miguel Mendoza, Miguel Mora, Cristiana Chamorro, Jaime Arellano, Samanta Jirón and the general manager of La Prensa, Juan Lorenzo Hollman.
These communicators were imprisoned in the framework of a wave of arrests prior to the general elections last November, in which Ortega obtained a questionable new re-election, with his main contenders in prison, accused of “treason against the fatherland.”
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Since that social outburst against the Ortega government, at least 120 Nicaraguan journalists have decided to go into exile, mainly to Costa Rica, the United States and Spain, including the 2021 Ortega y Gasset Prize winner, Carlos Fernando Chamorro, according to data from the Human Rights Collective. Nicaragua Never Again.
Since April 2018, state authorities have closed more than 20 local media outlets and are currently exerting economic pressure against television channels 10 and 12 and Radio Corporación, according to the humanitarian agency.
Nicaragua has been going through a political and social crisis since April 2018, which has been accentuated after the controversial general elections on November 7, in which President Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term, fourth consecutive and second together with his wife, Rosario Murillo, as vice president, with his main contenders in prison.
