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Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED), warns of more closures of information spaces and that the repression against the few men and women journalists who remain in Nicaragua does not stop.
Por: Redacción Intertextual/contacto@intertextualcr.com
The most recent report from the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED) reveals that women journalists are the main target of attacks by Sandinista propagandists, which translates into an act of misogyny.nn“We record cases in which Sandinista spokespersons attack journalists, media outlets and other media workers. A constant that we have analyzed in this quarter (July – September 2023) is the repeated attack on Berta Valle, who in previous years served as a presenter of television programs and coordinator of journalistic projects,” indicates the organization.
In this sense, they explain that a «similar situation occurs against the journalists Lucía Pineda and Jennifer Ortiz whom the Sandinista spokesmen frequently offend and slander, solely for maintaining on the agenda of the media outlets they lead, a oriented approach. to the documentation of cases of human rights violations and the publication of journalistic works that denounce acts of corruption in the different spheres of state management,” the report states.
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Impact on journalists due to the closure of more information spacesn
The document also highlights the closure of news spaces on community radio stations that have migrated to purely musical programming to avoid closures and confiscation by the Sandinista regime.
“FLED has been able to verify that some local radio stations that still operate in their analog version in different departments of the country have drastically changed their programming, completely eliminating news programs and maintaining exclusively musical programming,” the report states.
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In other cases, the agency says, it has been identified that the stations have changed their company name or programming format. “In at least six cases, in the same number of municipalities, the radio stations have changed to exclusively Christian programming with a complete turn to the evangelical religion,” he indicates.
nJournalists continue to suffer persecution in Nicaraguan
Another aspect that stands out in the report is the exile and banishment of journalists, highlighting the cases of Marcos Medina, former press director of Radio Corporación and Kimberly León, director of Radio La Costeñisima. In addition, there are six other communication professionals who have had the same repressive fate.
“We also learned that relatives of communicators who were already in exile left the country as victims of siege and persecution by police and parastatal subjects. Until September 2023, FLED counts at least 223 journalists in exile,” the organization quotes.
They express their concern for the few independent journalists who are still in Nicaragua since even those who cover news of events are victims of expulsions by the police while their pro-government counterparts are guaranteed access to information.
nIn this third quarter, the FLED in its monitoring launched a total of 14 alerts, which generated the registration of a total of 20 cases of violations of press freedom.
