Carlos F. Chamorro: “Journalism in Nicaragua is Criminalized as Terrorism”

 Practicing journalism in Nicaragua is equivalent to committing a “crime of “terrorism”, denounced Nicaraguan journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, who went into exile in Costa Rica due to threats he received for doing independent journalism in his country.

“In Nicaragua, practicing journalism means that the regime fabricates the crime of terrorism and incitement to hatred against reporter,” said Chamorro in an interview with EFE in Madrid, addressing the censorship imposed by Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega.

In recent years, the Nicaraguan government “suspended and confiscated several independent media outlets” and “closed universities” dedicated to teaching journalism, such as the campus of the Central American University (UCA) in Nicaragua, because “doing journalism” or “expressing an opinion” is a crime in the Central American country, he continued.

Chamorro, son of former president Violeta Barrios and La Prensa newspaper editor Pedro Joaquín Chamorro —who was assassinated in 1978 during the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza— initially sympathized with the Sandinistas (in the 1980s) but distanced himself (over the last three decades) and eventually went into exile in 2021 in Costa Rica, where he now directs the online publication CONFIDENCIAL.

Journalism “from Exile”

The journalist, who participated this week in a forum on Central America organized by Casa de América in Madrid, lamented that this “criminalization of press freedom and expression” has resulted in journalism only being practiced “from exile” in Nicaragua.

More than 260 Nicaraguan journalists have gone into exile, according to the latest report by the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy (FLED).

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“Even though we are in exile, our eyes, ears, and reporting remain in Nicaragua,” Chamorro notes, convinced that the main “challenge” for independent media is “to provide security and safe communication channels” for collaborating sources.

Given the lack of “protection and guarantees” of rights for journalists in Nicaragua, Chamorro calls for “involvement” from international journalism in addressing the crisis in his country, “starting with Central American media,” which should “put on the radar” the country’s “silent resistance story.”

“The key is for the international press to continue telling Nicaragua’s story” to prevent the situation of censorship from being “normalized and accepted.”

This censorship crisis, Chamorro affirms, also affects Nicaraguan citizens in their “right to individual freedom of expression.”

This article was published in Spanish in Confidencial and translated by Havana Times. To get the most relevant news from our English coverage delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Dispatch.