Press freedom in Nicaragua has entered a phase of near-total suppression where independent journalism is not only subject to systematic harassment but has, in practice, been transformed into an activity persecuted and punished by the State. While the previous report documented the physical, institutional, and economic dismantling of the independent press, the current period reveals the consolidation of a repressive architecture aimed not merely at intimidating or weakening journalism, but at crushing it as a civic actor within the country.
This process, directed from the highest levels of power by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, constitutes a flagrant violation of the most fundamental principles of freedom of expression enshrined in the Declaration of Chapultepec, which categorically rejects any form of coercion or interference by power over the right to inform and express opinions. Likewise, it directly contravenes the principles set forth in the Declaration of Salta II, particularly regarding the protection of journalism in digital environments, which have now become one of the principal battlegrounds of persecution and censorship.
Although Nicaragua formally maintains legislation on access to public information, in practice this guarantee has been stripped of all substance. State opacity is absolute: institutions block, ignore, or neutralize any attempt at public scrutiny. This is compounded by the enforcement of the Special Cybercrimes Law, in force since December 2020, which has operated as a legal mechanism of intimidation and punishment. Under deliberately ambiguous provisions, the law allows for prison sentences of up to five years for those who disseminate information deemed “false” or “reserved” by authorities, thereby enabling the arbitrary criminalization of both journalists and their sources, in direct violation of international standards protecting journalistic confidentiality.
Censorship, however, is not confined to the legal framework or police repression. The regime has refined a policy of economic suffocation aimed at stifling any vestige of editorial independence. State advertising and other public resources are distributed exclusively among pro-government media outlets, many of them directly or indirectly linked to companies controlled by the ruling family. In this way, the State not only restricts the circulation of critical information, but actively shapes a communications ecosystem subordinated to its political and propagandistic interests.
At the same time, the judicial system has ceased to function even as a façade of legality, becoming instead an instrument of discipline and terror. During this period, cases of journalists subjected to arbitrary detention, prolonged incommunicado confinement, and extrajudicial control measures have been particularly evident. The cases of Elsbeth D’Anda and Leo Cárcamo are emblematic. Both were deprived of their liberty since late 2024; D’Anda spent 13 months in La Modelo prison before being released under conditions amounting to de facto confinement, marked by threats, surveillance, and restrictions incompatible with any notion of freedom. In both cases, the objective extends beyond individual punishment, serving as a warning to the broader journalistic community: practicing independent journalism in Nicaragua entails exposure to imprisonment, disappearance, or forced silence.
The brutality of this pattern is starkly illustrated in the case of Fabiola Tercero. After more than a year in a condition of enforced disappearance, she was shown in November 2025 on a state-controlled television channel inside her own home, in a staged broadcast intended to deny evidence of her abduction by authorities. Far from dispelling concerns, the episode confirmed the use of official media as an extension of the repressive apparatus. In addition, a less visible yet equally devastating form of harassment persists: even retired journalists are subjected to permanent surveillance and required to report daily to police stations, a practice akin to an undeclared “city-as-prison” regime that indefinitely prolongs punishment and humiliation.
This policy aims to eradicate the critical press from the national public sphere. Since the onset of the crisis in 2018, at least 309 journalists have been forced into exile to safeguard their freedom, integrity, and, in many cases, their lives. In 2025 alone, 26 additional journalists fled the country. Exile, along with the prohibition of entry into national territory for journalists and content creators, has become a deliberate tool of political control. Nicaragua has thus been emptied of independent voices and reduced, internally, to a severely diminished informational landscape, whose void is only partially mitigated by media outlets and reporters operating remotely from abroad.
Exile, however, does not guarantee safety. The murder of analyst Roberto Samcam in Costa Rica in June 2025 had a devastating impact on the Nicaraguan journalistic community in exile. The crime intensified fears of transnational repression and deepened self-censorship among journalists who, even outside the country, perceive themselves to remain within the regime’s sphere of intimidation. This sense of vulnerability has extended beyond national borders, reinforcing the perception that the Nicaraguan repressive apparatus no longer limits itself to expelling dissenting voices, but seeks to pursue them wherever they attempt to rebuild their lives and work.
Unable to physically control all journalists abroad, the regime has shifted a significant portion of its offensive to the digital sphere. In 2025, 74% of press freedom violations corresponded to online attacks, confirming that cyberspace has become a new front of state persecution. These are not isolated incidents, but rather part of a coordinated strategy of attrition, stigmatization, and discredit. Troll farms, propaganda networks, and pro-government media operators carry out systematic campaigns of harassment against editors, reporters, and media outlets in exile, with the aim of undermining their credibility, weakening their audiences, and imposing a climate of permanent fear. Among those participating in this machinery are figures such as Moisés Absalón Pastora, William Grigsby, and Marcio Vargas, whose public interventions have contributed to legitimizing defamation and harassment against journalists including Jennifer Ortiz and Miguel Mendoza.
This digital offensive has been accompanied by large-scale prior censorship measures. In March 2025, the regime ordered the blocking of all news websites operating under the national “.ni” domain. This decision underscored its intention not only to suppress critical content, but also to dismantle the basic infrastructure that enables its dissemination.
In sum, Nicaragua has consolidated itself as one of the most extreme environments for the suppression of press freedom in the hemisphere. The convergence of police repression, judicial arbitrariness, economic suffocation, forced exile, permanent surveillance, and digital violence has produced a comprehensive system of silencing aimed at eliminating all forms of independent journalism and replacing them with a communications apparatus subordinated to state power. However, despite this crackdown, exiled journalists and media organizations are working tirelessly to shift this trend, successfully ensuring that their independent coverage remains a vital source for a public that rejects state-sponsored disinformation.
