As attacks against journalists in Nicaragua grow after months of protest, independent journalists in the country are calling for freedom to carry out their work. They are also expressing hope in the international organizations on the ground that are working to curb violence in the Central American nation.
The headquarters of Radio Nicaragua, state radio station of the Central American country, was attacked and destroyed by a fire in the early morning hours of June 8, according to local press reports.
While reporters don helmets to cover violent protests in Nicaragua, human rights and press organizations are calling on the international community to pay attention to attacks on journalists and news media amidst protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega.
A statement from independent Nicaraguan journalists condemning lethal violence on protesters and attacks on the press, and urging respect for press freedom from the government, has garnered signatures from 35 media outlets, four civil society organizations, 87 journalists and counting.
Two suspects in the murder of Nicaraguan journalist Ángel Gahona were sent to prison on May 8 after an initial hearing before a district judge in Managua, the country’s capital, La Prensa reported. However, the journalist’s family as well as the detainees and other civil society organizations, are protesting the accusation made by the public prosecutor’s office, saying it is a strategy of the authorities to avoid accusing the real perpetrators.
Numerous television and radio news outlets in Nicaragua were attacked or experienced signal interruptions during coverage of the wave of protests that erupted throughout the country due to a reform to the Social Security Law by the government of President Daniel Ortega.
A journalist was killed on the night of April 21 in Bluefields in eastern Nicaragua during a Facebook Live broadcast of the fourth day of protests against pension reforms.
Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of Nicaraguan magazine Confidencial, said his country’s Army is spying on his publication and employees.
No interviews from public officials or access to press conferences, a duopoly of TV stations and most radio stations, and a law of access to public information that is not fulfilled: this is what fills the days of independent journalists in Nicaragua.
A year after Nicaraguan journalists called on authorities for protection during anti-government protests, several were reportedly threatened during demonstrations in Managua last week.
April 1 was a day like any other for Nicaraguan journalists. A day of silence, of censorship. And it’s because at the beginning of the month, the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, celebrated 3,000 days without an open press conference, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
A group of 60 journalists in Nicaragua’s capital city gathered in the offices of the national police to demand investigations into recent attacks on the press, which they allege are going unaddressed.