"Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has joined forces with Radio Ambulante — the station behind Latin America’s leading narrative podcast of the same name — to release a special episode that lays bare the growing assault on press freedom in Central America – particularly the trend of exile as the only remaining way to continue reporting. Officially launched on 3 October 2025, the episode features the voices of Central American journalists who have endured persecution, censorship and expulsion from their home countries.
Exile is no longer the exception but a survival strategy for independent journalism in Central America. Since 2018, more than 280 Nicaraguan media workers have been forced to flee the country under pressure from Daniel Ortega’s regime, according to the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED). Authoritarian tactics modelled on this approach have since spread to El Salvador and Guatemala, where independent journalists face threats, criminalisation, surveillance, harassment and – in many cases – the stark choice of leaving their homeland or facing grave risks.
The episode “Canarios de las minas de carbón: las batallas de la prensa centroamericana”(Canaries in coal mines: the battles of the Central American press) of the podcast El Hilo was produced by Radio Ambulante with the support of RSF and other civil society organisations. It aims to raise international awareness and inspire concrete action to ensure that journalists in the region can carry out their work without fear or reprisals."
