Nicaragua’s press freedom conditions have seriously deteriorated in the last year, local journalists and free press advocates told Americas Senior Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría and me during a weeklong visit to Managua. We concluded our mission on Friday and will issue a report next month on the nation’s press conditions.
There are few street names and no addresses in Managua, a famously disorganized city whose downtown was destroyed in a 1972 earthquake and never rebuilt. To find a house, office, or government building you need directions which are only intelligible to locals. Here are couple of examples:
Canada | Chile | Dominican Republic | El Salvador | Haiti | Nicaragua | Panama | Peru CANADA • A Canadian court ordered news organizations not to report on the details of the bail hearings of 17 suspects accused of terrorism in March. The court acted under a provision in the Canadian Criminal Code that…
The Nicaraguan attorney general’s office has dropped a criminal investigation into a nonprofit journalism organization headed by the prominent editor Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios after finding no evidence of wrongdoing. A remarkable number of media groups and individuals, including CPJ, spoke out against the investigation as politically motivated.
Dear Mr. President: The Committee to Protect Journalists believes the criminal investigation of prominent journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro Barrios is politically motivated and intended to restrict critical news coverage in Nicaragua. The case undermines your government’s oft-stated commitment to press freedom.
In response to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s decision to investigate prominent journalist Carlos Chamorro Barrios for alleged money laundering through the Center for Media Investigation, of which Chamorro is a board member, we issued the following statement: “We are concerned that the investigation into Carlos Chamorro Barrios, a harsh critic of Ortega’s administration, could be…
UPDATE MARCH 5, 2008 Posted March 24, 2008 Original Case: February 10, 2004 Carlos José Guadamuz, Canal 23 KILLED William Hurtado García, who confessed to the 2004 murder of Canal 23 television host Guadamuz, was conditionally released from prison, the Nicaraguan press reported on March 5. Hurtado had been sentenced to a 21-year prison sentence…
UPDATE MARCH 5, 2008 Posted March 24, 2008 Original Case: February 10, 2004 Carlos José Guadamuz, Canal 23 KILLED William Hurtado García, who confessed to the 2004 murder of Canal 23 television host Guadamuz, was conditionally released from prison, the Nicaraguan press reported on March 5. Hurtado had been sentenced to a 21-year prison sentence…
December 19, 2007 Posted January 10, 2008 Jorge Loáisiga, La Prensa ATTACKED Loáisiga, a reporter for the Managua-based daily La Prensa, was beaten and handcuffed by members of President Daniel Ortega’s security personnel while covering an official event in the Nicaraguan capital, according to local press reports.