Debora Campos
02/28/2021 3:22 PM
Clarín.com
Culture
Updated 02/28/2021 3:22 PM
Journalists and editors from around the world signed an open letter this weekend in which they
demand urgent measures to guarantee freedom of expression in Nicaragua
, after the government of Daniel Ortega and (his wife and vice president) Rosario Murillo generated in just six months the murder of a reporter, dozens of forced exiles, torture and convictions of press workers, media occupation and censorship.
It is signed by prominent authors such as Sergio Ramírez and Martín Caparrós and intellectuals such as Jon Lee Anderson and the Chilean Mónica González, among other award-winning journalists.
"We openly express our concern and outrage at the process of dispossession of two basic rights, of which
the citizens of Nicaragua are victims:
freedom of expression and timely access to truthful and independent information," they said.
The last printed edition of the newspaper El Nuevo Diario, on Wednesday, September 27, 2019, after 39 years.
(AP Photo / Alfredo Zuniga)
The public denunciation is endorsed by international references, such as
Rosental Alves
, director of the Knight Center for Journalism of the Americas;
Jon Lee Anderson,
reporter for The New Yorker;
María Teresa Ronderos
, director of the Latin American Center for Journalistic Investigation (CLIP);
Mónica González
, founder of CIPER;
Germán Rey,
researcher on communication, society and culture;
Jean-François Fogel
, Director of the Master in Media Management at Sciences Po Paris and President of the Governing Board;
the writer
Martín Caparrós
;
Héctor Feliciano,
writer and journalist;
Natalia Viana,
Director of the Public Agency of Brazil;
Leila Guerriero
, writer;
Jaime Abello Banfi
, director of the Gabo Foundation, among many others.
“Since the beginning of the civic protests, in April 2018,
the government in the hands of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has exercised a systematic repression against dissident voices
, particularly against the media that are not under their control, until reaching the confiscation of facilities where independent media operated ”, they recall in the open letter and compose
a chilling list
in which the murder of journalist Ángel Gahona occurred, on April 21, 2018;
the assault carried out by paramilitaries, which destroyed Radio Darío's facilities, on April 20, 2018;
physical assaults, theft of equipment, threats, espionage and intimidation against reporters;
the forced exile of more than 70 press workers;
the customs blockade against the newspaper
La Prensa
and other media for 500 days, to prevent them from accessing paper and supplies;
the assault, robbery and police occupation of the offices of Confidencial and 100% Noticias in December 2018;
different cases of censorship and criminalization of the exercise of journalism, and the impeachment and imprisonment of two journalists, who were subjected to torture between December 2018 and June 2019.
"I was able to see the weight that
Confidencial
, the media directed by Carlos Fernando Chamorro, had. Of course, the regime could also see it and, as part of its campaign against the independent press, it sent its thugs to occupy it.
Martín Caparrós.
Argentine writer and journalist.
"I was in Nicaragua during the 2018 protests, which the Ortega-Murillo marriage repressed with dozens of deaths -
Martín Caparrós
recalled
this afternoon for
Clarín
-. There I could see the weight that
Confidencial
had
, the media directed by Carlos Fernando Chamorro. Of course, the regime was also able to see it and,
as part of its campaign against the independent press, sent its thugs to occupy it
. This week the regime confiscated its offices, along with those of
100% Noticias
. These cases are only part of the pressure that Ortega it exercises against any democratic initiative ”.
Precisely
Carlos Fernando Chamorro recounted his ordeal days ago
: “At 11:15 pm on Thursday, December 13 of last year, the National Police took by storm the writing of Confidencial and Esta Semana, the media that I have directed for more than twenty years.
Without exhibiting a court order or a mandate from any authority, the armed officers detained the private security guards, broke down the doors with violence and looted our newsroom for more than four hours.
When I managed to enter the office in the early morning of the next day, I found that all computers, television editing and filming equipment, as well as our institutional, accounting and private documents, had been stolen
.
A few hours later, on the night of Friday the 14th, the police returned to occupy our newsroom.
And to this day it is held by manu militari, executing a de facto confiscation ”, he narrated in an article published on the
New York Times website.
Demonstrators hold a Nicaraguan flag during a protest march against the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega in Managua on May 9, 2018. REUTERS / Oswaldo Rivas
After 11 months in exile, he returned to his country and from there he gave testimony to
Clarín
about the situation of the media in Nicaragua and his own state at this time: “I returned from exile in Costa Rica at the end of 2019,
despite that there were no security guarantees
and that our newsroom was still occupied by the police.
But I returned to exercise my right because
the only way to regain freedom under a dictatorship is by exercising our rights
, in this case as a journalist, ”he said.
Chamorro explained that
Nicaragua lives under an authoritarian regime "that became a bloody dictatorship in 2018, when it was challenged by a massive civic protest
that demanded free elections and the resignation of President Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo.
The regime responded with violence, massacred more than 300 people (today all these crimes are in impunity) and, in September 2018, imposed a police state with the expiration of all constitutional rights.
Nicaraguan journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, director of the media Confidencial and Esta Semana, is pushed by riot police outside the offices of El Confidencial in Managua on December 14, 2020. (Photo by STR / AFP)
Carlos Fernando Chamorro
is one of the most uncomfortable voices for President Daniel Ortega
, who has governed that country for 14 years, when he took office on January 10, 2007. In addition to directing the Confidencia portal, in May 2009, he won the Award for freedom of expression in Latin America, awarded by Casa América Cataluña (Spain) and in October 2010 he received the María Moors Cabot Award, awarded by the School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York.
“
The resistance of the independent press in Nicaragua cannot be explained without the support of our audiences
and the trust that the population has placed in the credibility of the independent press, on the one hand, and, on the other, for the empowerment of citizens to disseminate information through social networks ”.
"The resistance of the independent press in Nicaragua cannot be explained without the support of our audiences."
Carlos Fernando Chamorro.
Nicaraguan journalist.
In this sense, Chamorro highlighted in a dialogue with
Clarín
by phone that “
journalists and citizens are united in an effort to inform and to defeat official censorship
, while in Nicaragua there is no rule of law and there is absolutely no legal protection for the exercise of journalism".
Rosental Alves
is director of the Knight Center for Journalism of the Americas and explained to
Clarín
the critical situation in Nicaragua: “I joined the initiative because I agree with the urgency of calling the attention of the international community to
the abuses against journalists and media committed by the Ortega regime and his wife and vice-president Rosario Murillo
.
The scale came this week to the illegal confiscation this week of the properties of the independent media
Confidencial
,
Esta Semana
and
Esta Noche
,
owned
by Carlos Fernando Chamorro, and
100% Noticias
, whose leaders
were imprisoned for long months simply because they did their job. independently,
”Alves explained.
In addition, the Brazilian journalist, who is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and chairs the Chair of Communication at Unesco, recalled that this Monday, “when Journalist's Day is celebrated in Nicaragua,
we want to send a strong message of solidarity to journalists and the Nicaraguan people
.
A vehement protest against the abuses of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship.
And an appeal to the international community to take actions that help restore democracy and respect for human rights in Nicaragua.
Hopefully more journalists sign the open letter ”.