Nicaragua

The discrimination continues that began with the term of President Ortega of denying government advertising to independent media. The voracious acquisition of media outlets continues unabated; at the present time the government party holds radio stations Ya, Sandino, Primerísima, and Nicaragua; websites like El 19 Digital and Nicaragua Triunfa, and television channels 4, 6, 8, 13 an 91. Secrecy and lack of access to public information is such that the Secretary of Communications and Citizenship and Head of the Sandinista Front Campaign for National Liberation, Rosario Murillo, received complaints at a meeting on June 13 with “journalists of the Citizen Power media,” who spoke up about the blockage they also face in dealing with state institutions. On the advice of President Daniel Ortega, Murillo insisted on the “obligation” of workers and servants of the Government of National Reconciliation and Unity and of the municipal governments of Citizen Power to answer to the media that promote and defend the project and the government model. Murillo called upon the workers in the public relations offices of each institution to serve as a channel to permit access to the institutional head “whenever necessary.” “Until today, they have been means of obstruction of information, by which we harm the government, the president and the present and future prospects of the Nicaraguan people.” Of course, he said nothing in regard to independent media. Even so, the picket lines continue two or three times a week, on the part of a supposed union supported by sectors linked to the government party, against the newspaper La Prensa, as well as blocking of its doors to prevent the presses from running. Investigative journalists from La Prensa discovered that supporters and workers under the direct command of the president have created a corporation to which the telecommunications regulator, Telcor, diligently issued a license to offer over-the-air television service on UHF channel 47. This would be the second UHF television station that Telcor has granted to representatives linked directly to the Sandinista leader. During Holy Week, the general secretary of the city government of Managua and head of the FSLN campaign, Fidel Moreno, and the mayor, Dayse Torres, not only leveled accusations at opposition councilmen Luciano García and Leonel Teller, but also assured that “this time we reserve the right to accuse and sue the owners of the media that supported this campaign, as well as the media outlets themselves” for simply having reported on supposed poor management of city funds. Torres indicated that “anyone who defames the workers of the ALMA had better be prepared for the consequences. Journalists, be careful not to defame or hurt the image of persons who have not committed crimes.” During the meeting of the Foro de São Paulo in Managua, “on orders from above,” accreditation was denied to El Nuevo Diario, La Prensa, Channel 2 and Channel 12, to offer coverage of the annual meeting of the leftist parties of Latin America. The spokesperson for the event, Silvio Esteban Rodríguez, confirmed that he did not have authorization to accredit any reporting team from those media to cover the meeting. Photographers from El Nuevo Diario and La Prensa were attacked by Alejandro Bolaños Davis, president of the Conservative Party during an internal squabble at party headquarters during a bitter session of that party. In August, the correspondent for El Nuevo Diario in Jinotega, Silvia González spoke publicly before human rights organizations about threats she had received from a government party sympathizer. González reported to the Permanent Commission on Human Rights, PCHR, that on repeated occasions text messages were received on her cell phone warning her not to continue her newspaper work, otherwise “they will get you where it hurts the most.” The latest messages sent were: “From Jos: That’s how we wanted to see you so that you won’t keep on fucking, better to shut up for good,” followed by “If you keep on fucking we are also going to order that little rag where you work burned down.” In September, González felt obliged to quit the newspaper and leave the country after continued threats received against her life since July 30 without any response from the National Police, in spite of constant complaints to the police. González said that the police had only made a list of all of the telephone numbers, and assured her that they would call to identify the numbers. “Since they never called me, I went to the station on several occasions. The first time they told me that they didn’t have sufficient personnel, and the second time they wouldn’t even speak to me,” she assured. Later on she received two text messages in which they threatened to kill her, and in August they threw a chicken head onto her patio tied to a piece of paper on which her name was written. Two days before her departure, she received two anonymous letters with newspaper and magazine clippings on which it was written: “We are going to kill you.”