Nicaragua: La Prensa reduces its print edition due to lack of supplies

The press under the regime of Daniel Ortega, according to a journalist 1:47

(CNN Spanish) -

The newspaper La Prensa, the dean of the Nicaraguan press, with 95 years of existence, announced the reduction of the number of pages of its printed edition due to lack of supplies and warned that it could close it if its problems of supplies.

"It has not been possible to print completely on paper, today August 12, 2021. We have had to reduce it to 8 pages, because the General Directorate of Customs (DGA) arbitrarily does not authorize the delivery of the paper that is stored in the fiscal warehouse" reads an editorial by the company's management published in the newspaper this Thursday.

The publishing group, controlled by the Chamorro family, said that for the same reasons, Hoy, a popular newspaper dating from 2003, could not be printed.

Contacted by CNN to expand details of the situation, Fabián Medina, editor of La Prensa, said that at the moment everything the company had to communicate was in the published editorial.

CNN tried to get a reaction to this complaint from the General Directorate of Customs, but they do not respond to our calls.

We also request a reaction from the Government's Communication and Citizenship Council, coordinated by Vice President Rosario Murillo, but we are still waiting for a response.

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The Press reports a recurring problem

La Prensa in its editorial states that delays in the delivery of supplies have been a recurring problem.

"In the period from 2018 to 2020, the paper and other essential supplies for the printing of La Prensa were retained for 75 weeks. The regime only released them until the apostolic nuncio in Nicaragua, Monsignor Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, generously mediated before the authorities. superior of the Government. In this year 2021, the paper was retained again, during several weeks, until it was released on June 10. "

La Prensa recalled that "Article 68 of the Nicaraguan Constitution establishes that the importation of paper will be exempt 'from all kinds of municipal, regional and fiscal taxes."

As explained by executives of the medium, the paper "is not released in a timely manner, as required by law" and is sent to fiscal warehouses.

'Censorship in fact'

The reduction of the printed edition of La Prensa is considered by its directors as a "de facto censorship" in a year of an uncertain electoral process.

Nicaragua plans to go to the polls on November 7 in general elections.

• Elections in Nicaragua: Ortega seeks his fifth presidential term amid wave of arrests of opponents

"Freedom of the press and truthful information is the oxygen of freedom and democracy. Without a free and quality press, society cannot breathe, like Alvarito Conrado, the legendary child hero and democratic martyr of Nicaragua," the group says The Press.

Between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, La Prensa had already stopped printing for five months due to the retention of newsprint and other supplies by Customs, which were released by a government measure in early February 2020. By then, the company had already reduced the number of pages amid a slump in its advertising revenue, and had also been forced to cut more than half its staff.