Nicaraguan journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro was forced into exile. José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, in Guatemala, spent more than two years behind bars and remains under house arrest. And the digital outlet El Faro had to transfer its administrative and legal departments from El Salvador to Costa Rica. All three received similar accusations from their governments, seemingly in retaliation for their investigative journalism.
There is a global trend of governments accusing journalists and news organizations of financial crimes as a way to silence them, according to a report from UNESCO on the misuse of financial laws to pressure media outlets published on October 23. Central America has the highest concentration of cases in Latin America and the Caribbean, the report says.
Authors Edward Pittman and Elisa Juega analyzed over 120 cases worldwide between 2005 and 2024, and concluded that, as this is a relatively new and underreported phenomenon, the global number of cases during this period is likely higher.
The last five years account for 60% of the cases analyzed, indicating a sharp rise in these accusations against journalists, the report says.
The cases include charges of tax evasion, money laundering, extortion, financing of terrorism, fraud, embezzlement, and the receipt of foreign funds, which is criminalized in some countries.
The report says that, unlike defamation charges, there’s no need to establish a link between the financial charge and the content produced by the journalist or media outlet. This allows any ulterior motivation for the accusation to remain hidden.
“When the decision is made to harass journalists and journalism through this type of practice, one positive consequence for the harasser is that, on the surface, it’s not a discussion of freedom of expression since it supposedly concerns a financial crime,” Guilherme Canela, head of UNESCO’s section on Freedom of Expression and Journalist Safety, told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR).
Canela said one hypothesis suggested by the analysis is a global trend to replace direct censorship, which would involve prosecuting a journalist or outlet for their publications, with indirect censorship, using subterfuges like tax and financial laws.
The report says that while threats, killings, and misuse of the judiciary are methods that private actors may use against journalists, financial crime charges are almost exclusively initiated by state actors.
“In some countries the executive power can instruct tax authorities and other offices to launch investigations directly, bypassing the judicial system,” the report said.
The report highlights that these charges often lead to long prison terms and heavy fines. Additionally, mounting a defense is challenging, requiring tax and criminal lawyers, as well as accounting and legal experts – resources not easily accessible to journalists.
“As defending against charges of financial crimes is typically complex, the focus and resources of the journalists and/or media facing such charges are diverted from delivering its core journalistic work,” the report said.
The report recorded seven cases in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2010 and 2023, with most of them in Central America. The other regions analyzed were Africa with 15 cases, Asia and the Pacific with 44, and Eurasia with 60.
Five of the seven cases in Latin America began after 2021. In three cases, journalists and media outlets faced multiple charges, with money laundering being the sole or main charge in five instances.
The report also pointed to Central America as a region where “journalists routinely receive prison sentences when charged with financial crimes,” creating a “chilling effect” on journalists investigating corruption.
Another consequence is asset freezing for the journalist or outlet, interrupting the professional’s work or the outlet’s operations. This is a “very effective” form of censorship, even if temporary, which may lead to the outlet’s permanent closure, the report said.
This is what happened to El Periódico in Guatemala. The newspaper, founded and led by José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, ceased operations in May 2023 after nearly 27 years. Zamora Marroquín was arrested on July 29, 2022, accused of money laundering, influence peddling, and blackmail. Newspaper staff were accused of involvement in these crimes, while other journalists and columnists were charged with obstruction of justice for reporting on the case in El Periódico.
To avoid the same fate as El Periódico, in April 2023, El Faro in El Salvador transferred its administrative and legal structure to Costa Rica.
“We would never have made this decision if this country hadn’t become such a hostile and dangerous place to work,” said Sergio Arauz, deputy editor of El Faro, to LJR. “It’s important to clarify that we, as journalists, continue working in El Salvador, reporting the stories that have defined our outlet since its inception, on the ground.”
In September 2020, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele announced on national TV and radio that El Faro was under investigation for money laundering. The outlet said the Treasury Department was auditing its accounts and demanding information not related to taxes, such as the personal data of its subscribers.
Other attacks on critical press in El Salvador followed. In January 2022, an investigation by Citizen Lab, which is located at the University of Toronto and specializes in cybersecurity, revealed that at least 22 journalists from El Faro and eight from other outlets were spied on using Pegasus software. NSO Group, the Israeli company that makes the software, claims it only licenses it to governments. The Salvadoran government denied involvement in the spying.
A positive side of the administrative move to Costa Rica, Arauz said, is that it accelerated El Faro's efforts to become a regional media outlet. In addition to having journalists in Guatemala, the digital outlet hosted an edition of the Central American Journalism Forum (Forocap) in June in San José, Costa Rica.
Among the downsides of the move are the costs, he said. “We continue to face audits from the treasury. The government keeps trying to suffocate us and distract us from our work. In other words: we’re not just doing journalism; we also have to work to defend ourselves, take care of ourselves, and survive.”
Arauz said there is currently no possibility for El Faro to transfer its administrative structure back to El Salvador.
“A country without democracy, separation of powers, and due legal process isn’t an appealing option. However, the path we’re on as a country doesn’t bode well for a greater openness to journalism,” Arauz said. “We have a president who’s very popular in public opinion polls—a ‘cool’ dictator, as he calls himself. But on the day he starts to lose support or become unpopular, the few critical voices will face the consequences.”
In Nicaragua, the country with the most challenging environment for journalists in the region, Daniel Ortega’s government has been intensifying repression against critical voices since 2018. Hundreds of people have been imprisoned, and at least 278 journalists have been forced into exile over the past six years.
Carlos Fernando Chamorro is one of the Nicaraguan journalists forced to leave the country. The headquarters of Confidencial, the outlet he founded and directs, was raided by the National Police in December 2018 and was never returned. The government later converted it into a center for pregnant women.
Chamorro temporarily sought refuge in Costa Rica but returned to Nicaragua in November 2019. The police raided a new Confidencial office in May 2021, and in June, Chamorro announced that he and his wife had permanently left the country after a police raid on their home and those of some family members. In August 2021, the Nicaraguan Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that Chamorro was being charged with money laundering, misappropriation and improper retention, and abusive management of money, property and assets.
Canela expressed concern that unjust financial crime charges, besides silencing journalists and media outlets, also damage credibility.
“There is a very clear intent to discredit journalism as an institution essential to democracy,” he said. “If cases begin to accumulate where journalists are accused of evading taxes, laundering money or committing tax fraud, the already fragile credibility bond between society and journalists and journalism as an institution will become even more fragile.”
Canela explained that the crackdown from some governments on journalism fits within a broader “attack on the checks and balances in society,” as journalism is part of this system by investigating and demanding public accountability.
“When an authoritarian actor comes to power, they typically do two things simultaneously: censor the press and reduce judicial independence,” Canela said. “Authoritarian actors dislike both independent journalists and independent judges. This phenomenon we’re witnessing – and this [UNESCO] investigation is one piece of the puzzle – is indicative of this.”
