The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned this Monday “the recent police occupation and confiscation” of the Nicaraguan media outlet Trinchera de la Noticia, which became the fourth communication company closed since 2018, when the protests against President Daniel Ortega.
The president of the IAPA, Jorge Canahuati, has said that the mechanism that the Nicaraguan government used to close down this last media outlet has been the same under which other media outlets such as Canal 100%Noticias, as well as the newspaper La Prensa, have been taken over. and Confidential.
“It is the same rigged procedure, protected by a judicial system without independence and submissive to political power,” criticized Canahuati.
News Trench was raided on June 10 following a resolution by the Nicaraguan Judiciary that dissolved the company under which the media outlet was registered, the IAPA said, citing the outlet’s director, María Alicia Talavera.
The argument of justice, according to Talavera, was “for disturbing social peace and refusing to present the required information in the established time or presenting it incompletely.”
This means of communication it worked through an annual subscription and it was generally distributed in hotels and embassies in Managua. After its closure, only one medium remains in this format: Bolsa de Noticias, however, journalists warn that the “information blackout” has been severely expanding and to more massive levels.
For example, they explain, the few current independent media outlets that remain avoid addressing political issues, such as the recent Summit of the Americas and anything related to the exclusion of Nicaragua.
“It is forbidden in some media to address the issues of political prisoners and human rights. Some channels and independent media have had to self-regulate and restrict some issues, such as the political part,” the director of the digital media outlet 100%Noticias, Lucía Pineda Ubau, tells the Voice of America.
In the same way, she assures that if she were still in Managua, she would have been arrested a second time, as happened with the founder of 100%Noticias, Miguel Mora.
“Independent journalism is experiencing an extremely serious situation and the Ortega regime has four media outlets confiscated,” says Ubau.
In this sense, the IAPA reiterated the statement made on Nicaragua on April 19 of this year, where some 27 national and international press organizations pledged to fight “in favor of the validity of freedom of expression and of the press in the country and against the Nicaraguan dictatorship.”
The IAPA finally stressed that six journalists and media executives are currently detained in Nicaragua, including Miguel Mora, founder of 100%Noticias; Juan Lorenzo Holmann, general manager of La Prensa; Cristiana Chamorro, board member of La Prensa; the sports writer Miguel Mendoza, among others.
The government of President Ortega, for its part, has denied the claims made by the Nicaraguan press and accuses them of “lying” to destabilize his government, which he took office in 2007.
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