The “report on violations of press freedom” in Nicaragua, prepared by the newspaper La Prensa, warns that the Daniel Ortega regime tries to establish “journalistic silence” in the country, implementing “old and new repressive methods against the press. Independent”. In October, the document indicates, there were 107 cases of violations against freedom of the press, of these 98 against the media and nine against journalists.
They detail that the violations were: abusive use of state power (62); aggressions and attacks (37), stigmatizing speeches (5), and restrictions on access to information (3).
The report states that the main perpetrator of violations against press freedom, for the tenth time in a row, were state agents (98). They also pointed out that there were seven cases in which the perpetrators were parastatal agents and in two the aggressors were not identified.
Among the independent media most attacked last month are: La Prensa, Radio Corporación, Channel 10, Channel 12, Channel 14 and the newspaper Hoy.
Attacks on journalists
Independent monitoring indicates that the capital continues as the department with the most cases of press freedom violations, with 101 registered in October. In other cities such as León (3), Jinotega (1) and in the South Caribbean (2), although in smaller numbers, situations of attacks against the independent press were also reported.
Some of the attacks documented in the report are those suffered by journalists: Tania López, Belkis Medina and Francisco Mayorga, collaborators of Channel 10, the digital portal Semáforo Informativo and Radio Darío, respectively, who reported being victims of siege by operators ruling party politicians.
In the case of Medina and Mayorga, according to the complaint disclosed in the report, the aggressors identified as militants of the Frente Sandinista de León party took photographs as an intimidation.
For her part, journalist Tania López stated that she was “threatened by the political activist of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party Bayardo Martínez, who is also president of the León Communicators Network.”
The subject verbally accused the journalist of “making a lot of noise wanting to boycott the election process, so if you don’t stop we are going to have to shut up your mouth; you are too young to die ”.
Exclusionary electoral process in Nicaragua
The report adds a section on the exclusion suffered by the independent press during the voting process, indicated at the national and international level of not complying with democratic guarantees. They point out that there were reporters from independent media who denounced that the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) “did not fulfill its duty to accredit them for electoral coverage and the police authorities did not guarantee security.”
They also mentioned the censorship imposed against international media that tried to enter the country, to cover the voting process.
The document mentions the case of the French newspaper “Le Monde”, which denounced that the Nicaraguan Government denied entry to the journalist Frédéric Saliba on October 17.
Saliba was informed, a day before his flight to Managua, that his plane ticket had been canceled by the airline, which argued the decision of the Nicaraguan authorities for “immigration reasons.”
Another of the entry restrictions, mentioned in the report, is that of the Honduran newspaper “El Heraldo”, which denounced that the Nicaraguan immigration authorities prevented the entry of the journalistic team and its driver.
El Heraldo denounced that the Nicaraguan Migration Chief, who did not identify himself, after interrogating the journalistic team and temporarily withholding their work tools, verbally attacked them, telling them to leave Nicaragua, because their presence “is not allowed.” .
Greater fear of reporting
Independent monitoring shows that there was greater fear on the part of the victims to report the violations. La Prensa indicates that, in October, it learned of seven cases of independent journalists who “fanatics of the ruling party violated their fundamental rights and who, out of fear of greater consequences, have requested not to make the complaints public.”
They highlight that three of the victims, who preferred not to make the complaint public, are women who carry out their journalistic work in territories with a high percentage of hostility.
“The increase in cases of journalists who request that the attacks that were victims not be public knowledge should be an object of concern,” they warned.
