Media

Nicaraguan journalist running media outlet in exile due to crackdown on independent press

World Press Freedom Day: ‘There is a process of absolute total criminalisation of freedom of the press, of freedom of expression’ in Nicaragua, says Carlos Chamorro

Nicaraguan journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro. File photograph: Inti Ocon/AFP via Getty Images

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Colm Keena
Fri May 3 2024 - 06:00

Carlos Fernando Chamorro (68), the founder and director of Nicaraguan media outlet Confidencial, fled that country, along with his entire newsroom, in 2021 because of the criminalisation of all forms of independent journalism by the country’s ruling regime.

“Not only myself but all independent journalists in Nicaragua, all independent press in Nicaragua, had to go into exile since the year 2021, because there is a process of absolute total criminalisation of freedom of the press, of freedom of expression,” he said in an interview, over the telephone from Costa Rica, to mark World Press Freedom Day.

Trying to run a media organisation while the entire operation is in exile is not a temporary, emergency situation, said Mr Chamorro. “We share this experience with journalists from other countries, mostly from Cuba, from Venezuela, from Iran, Russia, Myanmar and several other countries, and we have been sharing experiences about this phenomena of media in exile, which is not, I want to stress, a temporary situation, it is a permanent situation.”

Mr Chamorro’s father, Pedro, was the editor of an opposition newspaper in Nicaragua during the Somoza regime, and his assassination in 1978 was one of the factors that led to its overthrow.

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Carlos Chamorro was a supporter of Daniel Ortega’s Sandinista National Liberation Front, which replaced the Somoza regime during the 1980s and continued to support it in 1990 when his mother, Violeta, contested the presidential elections and beat Ortega.

Ortega was returned to power in 2021 to a fourth consecutive term as president. Since then, has initiated a violent period of repression that has targeted all forms of independent political and civic activity, including independent journalists.

Between 20 and 25 media outlets, involving approximately 200 staff, have fled to Costa Rica and those who remain have to operate under a condition of self-censorship, Mr Chamorro says.

“You have two options: you go to prison or you continue to do journalism in exile. This is what we did ... Our minds, our ears are in Nicaragua, and it is very difficult, because not only are journalists criminalised, but so also are our sources, so we have to protect our sources. You cannot attribute information to independent sources, that is also a crime.”

Advertising in independent media outlets has also been criminalised, and Confidencial relies on grants from organisations that support independent journalism, money earned by way of its website and YouTube channel, and donations from readers, about half of whom live in Nicaragua. It does not operate a paywall.

“To report from outside involves a lot of difficulties. How to produce credible information when our sources are also under persecution. So we have to spend a lot of time corroborating our information and protecting our sources. Another major challenge is sustainability. This is not a temporary condition. We have been at this for three years now.”

Readers and viewers in Nicaragua can privately access content from independent news outlets located abroad, but what they cannot do is discuss the content publicly, particularly on social media. “That has become a crime.”

Among the targets of the regime’s oppression is organised religion. A journalist called Victor Tacay has been jailed for six years for broadcasting footage of an Easter parade on his news Facebook page.

“Our mission is to overcome censorship every day, to defeat censorship, to distribute our content to our audience,” said Mr Chamorro. The objective is not to influence government policy, because there is no chance of that happening, but rather to put matters on the record in the interests of long-term justice.

“We are accumulating facts, testimony, evidence, that is an important step on the road to justice,” he said. “It is a long-road process.”

The Reporters Without Borders organisation publishes an index of world press freedom each year on World Press Freedom Day. Last year Nicaragua ranked 158th out of the 180 countries listed. Ireland was ranked second.