Independent journalist Víctor Ticay, a correspondent for Channel 10 in the municipality of Nandaime, Granada, is being held in the torture cells of the Evaristo Vásquez Police Complex, known as “El Nuevo Chipote”. The communicator was arrested on April 6 by the Ortega Police, after covering an activity typical of Easter in his area.
The organization Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN) classified Ticay’s arbitrary arrest “as a repressive measure and criminalization of his journalistic work.”
“The reporter reported religious activities on the development of Holy Week in the city of Nandaime, department of Granada, which led to his arrest without any justification,” the agency denounced.
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Four days have passed since the arrest of Víctor Ticay and to date the authorities have not provided any information to the journalist’s relatives regarding his legal or physical condition.
What is generally known is that the Channel 10 correspondent was detained by the Sandinista police at noon on Holy Thursday, after he carried out a live broadcast of a religious activity in his coverage area.
Being mounted against his will in a police patrol, he was taken to the Nandaime police station and later transferred to the cells of “El Nuevo Chipote”.
For its part, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) demanded that the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo immediately release journalist Víctor Ticay and stop detaining members of the press in Nicaragua for carrying out their job.
“The Nicaraguan government has once again demonstrated its scant respect for the right to freedom of expression in the midst of an absurd climate of total censorship, which even extends to religious activities,” denounced CPJ Programs Director Carlos Martínez. of the Serna.
“The authorities must immediately release journalist Víctor Ticay and end his relentless campaign of intimidation and threats against the press into silence or exile,” he said.
In the first nine days of April, at least 21 Nicaraguans -among opponents, journalists, territorial activists and members of the Catholic Church and its parishioners- have been arrested by the Ortega dictatorship, according to records from the Blue and White Monitoring.