In solidarity with the independent journalists who continue to report, investigate and inform Nicaraguan society, 470 journalists from 40 countries signed a letter against repression from the government.
In their mission to document the events, many photojournalists in Latin America suffer attacks or arrests by the police.
The government of Daniel Ortega intensified repression against the critical press through the police and the justice system. In 2020 there were daily attacks against freedom of expression, and 2021 opened with raids on the home of journalist Anibal Toruño.
Survey of laws and bills that curb and punish disinformation and fake news on the Internet shows growth in Latin American countries. Experts warn of the risk of censorship and self-censorship of journalists.
La Costeñísima is an example of how the independent press tries to survive in the country in the face of persecution by President Daniel Ortega's authoritarian regime
Between January and June of 2020, Voces del Sur, a Latin American initiative, registered 630 aggressions against the press in the region. These went on the rise or worsened after governments issued a health emergency.
Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of the magazine Confidencial in Nicaragua, and Carlos Dada, cofounder of El Faro in El Salvador, talked with María Teresa Ronderos, director for CLIP, about journalism in the face of hostile governments during the 13th Ibero-American Colloquium on Digital Journalism.
Cartoonist Pedro X. Molina talked about the current political crisis Nicaragua is experiencing and how critical media have become targets in the process. It was part of the event, “Media and Democracy in Times of Digital Cholera and Polarization in Latin America.”
About 60 independent journalists have gone into exile, which in a country as small as Nicaragua is an important number proportionally speaking.
In honoring work that has “contributed to Inter-American understanding,” the 2019 Maria Moors Cabot Prizes recognized journalists from Mexico, Nicaragua, the United States and Venezuela.
Brazilian journalist Patrícia Campos Mello and Nicaraguan journalists Lucía Pineda Ubau and Miguel Mora will receive the 2019 International Press Freedom Awards given by the Committee to Protect Journalists every year.
Costa Rican-Nicaraguan journalist Lucía Pineda is one of five women journalists to be honored with the 2019 Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF).