New York, April 24, 2018–Nicaraguan authorities should investigate journalist Ángel Eduardo Gahona’s death and ensure that reporters can do their work without fear of violence or censorship, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Gahona, the director of the local, independent television program El Meridiano, was fatally shot on April 21 while covering protests against…
New York, April 20, 2018–At least nine journalists have been injured and at least five independent television channels have been blocked in Nicaragua, as escalating protests against pension reform since April 18 have left at least three people dead, according to news reports.
Demonstrations began in Nicaragua on April 18, as thousands of civilians in several cities protested changes to the country’s social security system, according to reports. At least three people, including a protester and a police officer, were killed in clashes, The Associated Press reported.
It’s been nearly 3,000 days since Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega last held a news conference, according to the opposition newspaper La Prensa. But when journalists complain about the lack of access to Ortega they often direct their ire not at the president but at the first lady, Rosario Murillo.
When Nicaragua began preliminary work on an interoceanic waterway designed to handle ships too big for the Panama Canal, some of the foreign correspondents who had flown in to cover the December groundbreaking were left high and dry.
Dear OAS Ministers of Foreign Affairs: Ahead of the assembly of the Organization of American States on Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists urges you to oppose any attempts to debilitate the regional human rights system. The failure of member states to preserve the autonomy and independence of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and its special rapporteur on freedom of expression would make citizens throughout the hemisphere more vulnerable to human rights violations and represent a blow to democracy in the Americas.
In some Latin American countries, state-owned media are used not only for propaganda but as platforms to smear critics, including journalists. Some elected leaders have even invested in large multimedia holdings to further their agendas. By Carlos Lauría