Freedom of the press in Nicaragua

Among the victims were Angel Gahona, a local TV producer of the news program El Meridiano, who was killed by a gunshot wound to the head while covering the protest on Facebook Live.

Tim Rodgers, an American reporter was forced to leave Nicaragua, after a harassment campaign led by a group of sandinistas who believed he worked as a spy for the CIA.

Carl David Goette-Luciak, an Austrian-American reporter who was based in Nicaragua for past three years, contributed to media outlets such as British daily The Guardian and The Washington Post.

The lack of press freedom is backed up by the government and president Daniel Ortega as the established system encourages oppression and censorship that: “has made it extremely hard for the media to operate.” (RSF, 2018).

According to the Nicaraguan Association of Human Rights (ANPDH): “at least 350 people have been killed in the past three months.” The growing crisis has been manifested with physical violence, arbitrary arrest and confiscation, theft or destruction of equipment.

In response to such actions and as the situation continues, the RSF and the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), called on president Ortega in order to cease the current violations to reporters in Nicaragua.