Stigmatization, harassment, and threats by government militants and government figures against journalists and severe restrictions on access to public information continued during this period.
"El Salvador is far from saying that it is a country where there is full freedom of the press... it is a silenced society," said Roberto Rock, president of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), during a joint mission of the organization and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The mission established that, since the implementation of the state of emergency, fundamental constitutional guarantees have been limited, including the confidentiality of private correspondence, and arrests without warrants have been made possible, creating a climate of intimidation and self-censorship among those who practice journalism.
Rock referred to the attempt to asphyxiate the media, citing the detention and torture for almost a year of community journalist Víctor Barahona, the operation of the newspaper El Faro in exile, and the multimillion-dollar lawsuit against El Diario de Hoy.
The Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES) registered 165 aggressions against journalists in 2024, including threats and intimidations, mainly against women journalists, and also attempts of illegal detention.
The government continues to restrict access to reports from public institutions. In the face of criticism and denunciation of acts of corruption or abuse, the authorities remain silent and discredit the independent media.
Limitations go to the extreme of blocking media and journalists from accessing government social networks, including the Presidency.
At the end of September, journalists and different media reported blocking by institutions and public officials on the social network X. The APES Monitoring Center recorded 19 journalists whose accounts were blocked. The journalists belong to El Faro, Voz Pública, FOCOS, Revista Factum, Revista Elementos, La Prensa Gráfica, El Diario de Hoy, YSUCA, Radio Izcanal, Infodemia and Voz Pública.
Also, according to APES, spying on journalists persists, allegedly affecting Jorge Beltrán Luna of El Diario de Hoy and Carlos Dada, director of El Faro.
In his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, President Nayib Bukele proclaimed: "We do not imprison our opposition, we do not censor opinions, we do not confiscate property of those who think differently, we do not arrest people for expressing their ideas. In El Salvador, your freedom of expression and your private property will always be protected".
At that time, a police chief restrained two journalists from El Diario de Hoy who were covering the reception of denunciations of abuses during the emergency regime, forced them to erase their photographs and videos, and took the identity data of a journalist.
Numerous episodes against journalists and photojournalists were recorded during these months.
The Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights and Freedom of Expression of El Salvador, Andres Guzman Caballero, justified several events alleging laws that guarantee the protection of the right to image, including those of State agents, and that criminal and civil provisions that regulate the "undue use of images and their dissemination without consent" must be complied with.
The official argued that the right to image is protected by the "personal data protection law" and urged its respect, to which the president of APES, Sergio Aráuz, expressed that such law does not exist.
Other cases
In August, YouTuber Sel Ramírez was threatened by the police with arrest if he did not delete a video he made in front of the Legislative Assembly building. The Assembly regretted the incident and denied that it had ordered to hinder the work of "YouTubers, content creators or journalists."
In May, journalist Victoria Delgado and photojournalist Carlos Barrera, both from El Faro, were held for half an hour in the Villa Universitaria of the National University of El Salvador (UES) while taking photographs and videos of the site. Two members of private security approached them to question them. Then, a person who identified himself as a "government employee" ordered them to erase the photos and videos they had taken without a legal or judicial order.
