The organization of Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN) denounced that, in the context of the general votes, which took place on November 7, the independent press suffered 52 attacks carried out by the National Police.
From October 25 to November 7, according to a PCIN report, there were: 17 attacks on the media trying to enter the Voting Centers. Eight trips within the country; two cases of cyberbullying with expressions of discrimination, homophobia, stigmatization due to sexual orientation; three forced exiles; and four robberies of equipment, including these two cell phones, a camera and a motorcycle.
They also denounced the arrest of two independent journalists who were “victims of abuse of power by being forced to wear a prison uniform, taking fingerprints without prior investigation, and theft of their equipment.”
Mileydi Trujillo and Elvin Martínez are the journalists that they were victims of arbitrary detention, executed by the National Police, when both covered the voting process. The communicators were held for more than two hours at the Masaya police station, where they were interrogated and accused of promoting non-voting.
PCIN indicated that 45 of the 52 attacks they documented occurred on November 7. Hours before the elections, they even registered two cases of break-ins.
Journalist Jeffry Sequeira, from Radio Camoapa, is one of the victims of the raids denounced by PCIN. Police officers entered the communicator’s home without presenting any court order and took some documents.
Cyber threats, persecution and attacks
The Journalists and Communicators documented ten cases of persecution and threats to the independent press that was mobilized in different parts of the country, recording the voting process. MCommunication media such as La Prensa, Channel 12 and Article 66 denounced, on their social networks, that some of their journalistic teams were hampered to cover the voting.
La Prensa denounced that one of their teams was persecuted and photographed. “A Sandinista sympathizer besieges a journalistic team from La Prensa, which is providing coverage … The subject, after asking which media outlet the team belonged to, proceeded to take photographs of the journalists,” the media reported on its social networks .
The journalist Wilmer Benavides, a contributor to Article 66, also denounced via Twitter that he was photographed and recorded while trying to cover the voting in some Voting Centers. In addition, he pointed out that he was beaten and prevented from carrying out his journalistic work by the bodyguards of the president of the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), Brenda Rocha.
PCIN also denounced the censorship, imposed by the Ortega regime, against international media who tried to enter the country to cover the voting. “Seven international press teams publicly denounced having been prevented from entering the country, however, we know of more cases not reported for security reasons,” the document detailed.
In exile, according to PCIN, there were also two cases of threats against journalists, extensive to their families; three cyber sieges and a cyber attack on the intertextual information platform.
