El Nuevo Diario newspaper journalist Luis Galeano told the police and several human rights groups that he received a phone call and a letter warning him that he would be killed, Notimex reports.
“You have 72 hours left to live, you have 72 hours to take back what you are going to publish, otherwise you will not see your family again,” a male voice told the journalist, quoted by El Universal. On the same day (Feb. 19), an unknown individual dropped an “urgent” letter off at El Nuevo Diario with new threats towards Galeano, EFE explains.
According to EFE, the threats appear to refer to a series of reports on alleged corruption in the federal government’s electoral bureaucracy that El Nuenvo Diario began publishing Feb. 21.
The journalist has been targeted before for his reporting. Just last month, he received a series of threats after reporting on alleged corruption in the Finance Ministry.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned the threats and called for a prompt investigation.
Beyond these anonymous threats, in recent years media outlets have complained of increasing political persecution from the government of President Daniel Ortega.
» Confidencial (Press freedom in Nicaragua: Then and now)
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
