The government of Daniel Ortega ordered this Friday, August 12, the closure of the Radio Dario station, one of the oldest and most important in Nicaragua, located in the west of the country.
The radio, which had been in existence for more than 70 years, had recently been restructured after being burned down in 2018 during anti-government protests.
The director of the station, Aníbal Toruño, shared a letter issued by the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications (Telcor), which regulates radio and television media, where he justifies the cancellation of the radio for alleged modifications to the license with which was operating.
“The institution carried out an on-site inspection at the facilities of said Radio, verifying that its transmission studies do not correspond to those authorized by the license (…) based on the foregoing, it was determined that the facilities in which the radio must operate have been modified and altered. service”, Telcor alleges, and said that this “constitutes a cause for cancellation of the license”.
Telcor, led by Nahíma Díaz, who is sanctioned by the United States, Like his father, Francisco Díaz, head of the National Police, has canceled some 13 media outlets in the last two months.
Toruño reacted to the closure indicating that “neither turning off equipment, nor arbitrarily withdrawing a license, will they be able to silence us or silence the truth.”
“After 73 years, Radio Darío is and will be a voice that defends justice, democracy and citizen rights. Far from intimidating us, their actions strengthen us.”
Hours later, the director of the station gave a press conference where he stressed that the technical considerations used by Telcor were “lies and humbug” and that really “this decision is political, vertical and had to be complied with. I had a report that they had to justify their reports in something, we have complied with the law, ”he indicated at a press conference.
“It is a decision of Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega,” he said.
“I prepared myself for this, with the certainty that we have planted convictions, ideals, it is the beginning of a new reality and a new way of doing radio, reinventing ourselves, we will continue presenting the tragedy that the Nicaraguan people are experiencing,” Toruño concluded.
unprecedented attacks
Nicaragua has been experiencing a serious political crisis since 2018, when the protests began against Ortega, who returned to power in 2007.
Following the demonstrations, Ortega has ordered the search and closure of the offices of dozens of media outlets, including some of the most important and oldest, such as the daily the presswith almost 100 years of history, and Confidential, directed by the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro. The same end has 100%Newswhose director and founder is in jail for the alleged crime of “conspiracy to undermine national integrity.”
But the attacks have not been limited only to the seizure of the media, but also to the persecution of reporters. Recently the press He announced that he took his entire newsroom out of the country after Ortega unleashed raids on the residences of journalists.
The dramatic situation of the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa, whose entire draft is forcibly exiled, is unprecedented, said the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Pedro Vaca, in an interview with the VOA.
Freelance journalist Winston Potosme contributed to this report from Miami
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