The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described this Friday as a “shameful farce” the celebration on March 1 of Journalist’s Day in Nicaragua, as the government has “annihilated independent journalism” and forced about 300 communicators into exile. “It is a shameful farce,” emphasized a note signed by Artur Romeu, RSF’s director for Latin America, who demanded “that Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime end the persecution against the press.”
In the last year, four Nicaraguan journalists have been detained by the police and to date the whereabouts of three of them remain unknown, while another 300 have gone into exile, RSF added. Furthermore, the government has expelled at least 46 communicators in the last year, according to the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED), a collaborator of RSF.
Ortega, a 79-year-old former guerrilla who governed Nicaragua in the 1980s after the triumph of the Sandinista revolution, has been in power since 2007, and his critics accuse him of establishing, along with his 73-year-old wife, a “family dictatorship.” The organization noted that the government of Ortega and Murillo has maintained “a deliberate strategy to silence independent journalism and control the information that the population can access.”
“The situation is terrifying. Many independent journalists have stopped working out of fear. Those under house arrest cannot report on their situation due to the threats hanging over them and their families,” according to the statement. Journalist’s Day “has become a harsh reminder of the relentless oppression that independent journalists have faced in Nicaragua,” it noted.
RSF called on the international community “to pressure the regime to release detained journalists” and “establish guarantees for press freedom in the country.” A comprehensive constitutional reform, in effect since February 18, gives Ortega and Murillo absolute power in the country and establishes “surveillance” over the press, among other control measures over civil society.
Murillo, elevated to the rank of co-president in that amendment, congratulated Nicaraguan journalists in her capacity as communication coordinator and government spokesperson. Nicaragua ranks 163rd in RSF’s press freedom ranking, out of a total of 180 countries. It is in the “very serious situation” group alongside Russia, China, North Korea, or Afghanistan.
