At least 46 journalists had to leave Nicaragua for exile in 2024 and four were detained, according to a report published this Monday in Costa Rica by the NGO Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED). The four captured were Fabiola Tercero, in “unknown whereabouts” since her arrest and house raid in July 2024; Henry Briceño, later “expelled” to Costa Rica with his family; and Leo Cárcamo and Elsbeth D’Anda, both in prison, according to FLED.
“In the last months of 2024, the government intensified its repression through forced disappearances, banishments, and arbitrary detentions targeting independent media and journalists,” stated the NGO, which operates from exile in Costa Rica. By the end of 2024, a total of 283 media professionals were forced into exile “to protect their lives and those of their families” since the anti-government protests of 2018, highlighted FLED in its report, titled “Independent Press in Nicaragua: 2024, Resilience and Courage in the Face of State Repression.”
A week ago, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San José, asked the Nicaraguan government to “immediately” release Cárcamo, who was detained last November. That same month, D’Anda was captured after reporting on food price increases on a local television channel.
The press situation worsened in Nicaragua following the 2018 protests that left more than 300 dead in three months, according to the UN, which the government of Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, consider a coup attempt orchestrated by Washington.
Ortega reformed the cybercrime law in 2024, which increased penalties and opened the way to condemn people for social media posts. Additionally, a constitutional reform approved by Congress establishes that the State will “monitor” the press and the Church to ensure they don’t respond to “foreign interests.”
Since 2018, about fifty independent or government-critical media outlets have closed in Nicaragua and their assets have been confiscated, according to reports from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and other international press organizations.
