The regime banishes another journalist, Marcos Medina.
Miami (July 31, 2023) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned another attack by the Nicaraguan regime against journalism after learning of the banishment of journalist Marcos Medina and his family, who were prevented from entering the country.
Medina, director of the digital media Fuentes Confiables, was visiting Florida, United States, on a family medical matter. On July 24, when he was about to return to his country with his wife and daughter, the airline notified them that the Nicaraguan Immigration and Alien Affairs Office had denied them entry.
IAPA President Michael Greenspon, Global Head of Licensing & Print Innovation for The New York Times, condemned the regime's new aggression against Medina and his family. "We continue to denounce the cruelty of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, which violates the human rights of its citizens at will."
Carlos Jornet, president of the organization's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, added that "although Medina was able to continue exercising his profession actively and discreetly in Nicaragua, it is evident that the government, in the best style of the Cuban dictatorship, took advantage of his trip abroad to banish him."
Jornet, the editor of the Argentine daily La Voz del Interior, said, "Unfortunately, Medina's case is added to that of 208 other journalists who since 2018 have been forced into exile or to take asylum in other countries."
Fuentes Confiables, whose portal defines itself as "a new information alternative in times of censorship," stated that Medina had been harassed on social networks by Sandinista sympathizers and suffered a police siege in his home, among other acts of harassment.
Medina worked between 2015 and 2018 at La Prensa newspaper and, before that, at Radio Corporación and Canal 12.
In February, the regime expelled 222 political prisoners and stripped them of their nationality, as well as 94 other people, including ten journalists, who remained in the country. The report on Nicaragua, presented at the IAPA meeting last April, underlines: "The regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo intensified its attacks against freedom of the press and expression during this period."
IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It comprises more than 1,300 publications from the western hemisphere; and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.