The director of 'El Confidencial', Carlos Fernando Chamorro, last December after being expelled from the offices of his media in Managua by the riot police.
In the turbulent history of press freedom in the Americas, the last few years have been a new dark period. The region wakes up every day with news of attacks on journalists, who admirably continue to exercise their profession against all odds in a context of violence and the progressive deterioration of democracy, in some cases reduced to almost nothing. The harassment of the press with impunity increases as institutions collapse or the little that remains of them in countries such as Venezuela or Nicaragua. It happens in these countries, where the collapse of democracy has been macerated for years, and in others where the deterioration seems to take place more abruptly, such as in El Salvador of the caudillo Nayib Bukele.
Some recent cases in recent weeks illustrate this decline.
In Venezuela, where the sustained aggression of two decades of Chavismo has reduced to a minimum the independent institutions that are still standing, the building of the newspaper
El Nacional
, one of those newspapers without which it is difficult to understand the history of a country, was seized on May 14 as partial payment of compensation for alleged moral damages to Diosdado Cabello.
It is the most recent episode of an arbitrary and lengthy judicial process against the newspaper, which despite everything has not stopped reporting on corruption cases.
As the journalist Luz Mely Reyes once wrote, one of the crucial battles in Chavista Venezuela is for the rights to freedom of the press and expression.
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In Mexico, the most violent country in the Western Hemisphere for the exercise of journalism, on the morning of May 3, the police found the body of journalist Benjamín Morales with several gunshot wounds.
Most of these attacks on journalists are never resolved.
Despite the levels of crime and impunity, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador uses his morning lectures to attack critical and independent media.
In Nicaragua, this week the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo again raided the facilities where journalists from the newspaper
Confidencial worked
.
Without presenting a warrant, the police seized computers, cameras, television editing equipment and dozens of boxes of documents.
While they raided the facilities, the police launched a rhetorical question into the air: "Where are the coup plotters?"
In Colombia, independent organizations recorded at least 40 deaths from police violence and hundreds of attacks in just two weeks during recent anti-government protests, including at least 70 attacks on reporters.
Repressive responses from the government had already been recorded in previous demonstrations, but this time the levels of police brutality and abuse have been exceptional and poignant.
Nicaragua is one of the clearest examples of the deterioration of press freedom in the region. The violent repression of the civic rebellion that broke out in April 2018 reminded the international community of the reality of the autocratic dynastic regime, erected by the Ortega-Murillo couple during the previous decade. To suppress protest and criticism, the regime resorted to harassment, arbitrary detentions, torture, disappearances, censorship of the media and critical information, the expulsion into exile of dissidents, and public smear campaigns . Reporter Ángel Gahona was shot dead while covering the protests live. The director and news director of the television channel 100% Noticias, Miguel Mora and Lucía Pineda,they were arrested and imprisoned for six months in harsh conditions. The Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation, which in February of this year announced the closure due to a controversial law that seeks to control those who receive funding from foreign organizations, estimated that from April 2018 to July 2019, some 90 journalists left Nicaragua for exile. The renewed repression against civil society, the press and the opposition precedes the presidential elections in November, in which the Ortega-Murillo regime seeks to consolidate its power at all costs in a state of exception.estimated that from April 2018 to July 2019, some 90 journalists left Nicaragua for exile. The renewed repression against civil society, the press and the opposition precedes the presidential elections in November, in which the Ortega-Murillo regime seeks to consolidate its power at all costs in a state of exception.estimated that from April 2018 to July 2019, some 90 journalists left Nicaragua for exile. The renewed repression against civil society, the press and the opposition precedes the presidential elections in November, in which the Ortega-Murillo regime seeks to consolidate its power at all costs in a state of exception.
Nicaraguan journalists continue, despite everything, in their efforts. His tenacity reminds reporters in El Salvador who resist Bukele's onslaught in his ambition for absolute power and colleagues throughout the region, from Jair Bolsonaro's Brazil to Guatemala. The only way to do justice to the strenuous effort of the American press to preserve their freedom in such hostile conditions is the firm and sustained condemnation of the attacks they suffer and the conditions that protect them. Countries and institutions committed to democracy must denounce laws and abuses that seek to economically stifle the media, criminalize journalism, and silence critical observers.They must strengthen the human rights system built over decades and ensure that the press can cover matters of public interest such as demonstrations and electoral processes, when repressive governments redouble their efforts. They have to adopt a discourse that promotes reasonable criticism of the media and journalism and not harassment and attack on reporters. The renewed caudillo tradition and the crisis caused by the pandemic are leading the Americas into a new dark period. Without the pressure and determined support of the international community to reverse this decline, the admirable effort of journalists who resist each day will be a footnote in the collapse of democratic institutions.They have to adopt a discourse that promotes reasonable criticism of the media and journalism and not harassment and attack on reporters. The renewed caudillo tradition and the crisis caused by the pandemic are leading the Americas into a new dark period. Without the pressure and determined support of the international community to reverse this decline, the admirable effort of journalists who resist each day will be a footnote in the collapse of democratic institutions.They have to adopt a discourse that promotes reasonable criticism of the media and journalism and not harassment and attack on reporters. The renewed caudillo tradition and the crisis caused by the pandemic are leading the Americas into a new dark period. Without the pressure and determined support of the international community to reverse this decline, the admirable effort of journalists who resist each day will be a footnote in the collapse of democratic institutions.Without the pressure and determined support of the international community to reverse this decline, the admirable effort of journalists who resist each day will be a footnote in the collapse of democratic institutions.Without the pressure and determined support of the international community to reverse this decline, the admirable effort of journalists who resist each day will be a footnote in the collapse of democratic institutions.
Carlos Martinez de la Serna
is Director of Programs for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).