Government violence against journalists and their families was characterized by stigmatization, surveillance, confiscation, and exile in the last quarter of 2023. The violence intensified in 2024 but with the addition of other censorship tools, including the closure, inside and outside the country, of journalists' bank accounts, robberies of their homes, denial of medical care, and attacks on their families.
The Sandinista dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo intensified its attacks in this period, leaving departments of the country without independent journalism. The government detained several partisan journalists because they made comments critical of the dictatorship and continued with its stigmatizing speech against the press. Most state aggressors are members of the Judiciary and the National Police. The most common attacks were theft of property, threats, harassment, denial of issuance of identity documents, and attacks by trolls on social networks.
Due to the general attacks on the independent press, the second report of the Group of Human Rights Experts for Nicaragua (GHREN) asked the international community to resort to international criminal justice, emphasizing that these crimes against expression should be considered "against humanity." The report detailed how peasants became "enemies" of the regime, as well as university students, some of whom also suffered the stripping of their nationality. The government also affected religious freedom. He banished several priests and prevented others from organizing processions.
Despite this and in defiance of official censorship, the Nicaraguan media in exile continued to report. La Prensa celebrated its 98th anniversary by reporting from the waters of the San Juan River and publishing a special edition for citizens to print as an act of resistance. The magazine celebrated its 20th anniversary with a redesign and a book with a compilation of its best reports. However, several organizations have detected that the media in exile suffer problems in terms of sustainability due to the precariousness of advertising resources and the inefficiency of relocation or safe mobility programs that prevent journalists from continuing their work.
The organization "Voces del Sur" denounced several attacks against journalists and the use of state advertising as a coercive method to subjugate the few media outlets that remain working in the country. He also indicated that the Special Cybercrime Law and the Sovereignty Law continue to be applied to persecute and imprison those who criticize the government through social networks.
The Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN) organization reported on March 1 several attacks in the first quarter of 2024, of which nine were against media outlets and five against journalists, including four women. He also denounced that several Nicaraguan journalists were attacked in Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, and Costa Rica.
