The IAPA calls for the freedom of five Nicaraguan journalists and praises the newspaper La Prensa

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) demanded this Wednesday the Government of Nicaragua the immediate release of three directors of the newspaper La Prensa and two journalists from other media sentenced for his defense of the freedom of expression and press in that country.

In the statement in which he advocates the freedom of Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro and Pedro Joaquín Chamorro and Cristiana Chamorro, in addition to Miguel Mora and Miguel Mendozathe Miami-based organization recalled that today La Prensa turns 96 “fulfilling its informative mission despite facing profound difficulties and repression.”

The Chamorro, a political and journalistic dynasty against the ropes in Nicaragua

The regime of President Daniel Ortega closed and kept the newspaper’s headquarters occupied since August 13, but La Prensa continues to be published in digital format, thanks to the effort and courage of some journalists in the country and others in exile, the IAPA stressed. .

In addition, he extended his voice of encouragement and support to all Nicaraguan journalism, which on Tuesday, February 28 commemorated the national day of the press in one of the worst moments in history for the exercise of the task of informing.

“Our most emphatic solidarity with the directors, journalists and all the staff of the newspaper on this anniversary of La Prensa, which despite the theft of its facilities and the imprisonment of three senior executives, maintains the torch of freedom unharmed in the face of this dictatorship, just as it did before others in the past,” said the president of the IAPA, the Honduran Jorge Canahuati.

Juan Lorenzo Holmann Chamorro, general manager of La Prensa and vice president of the IAPA for Nicaragua, has been imprisoned since August 14, 2021, accused of the alleged crime of money, property and asset laundering, and the members of the board of directors are also imprisoned of the newspaper Pedro Joaquín Chamorro and Cristiana Chamorro, the latter under house arrest.

The president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, the Argentine Carlos Jornet, joined the demonstrations of solidarity “with La Prensa and the Nicaraguan journalists who struggle to exercise their profession in freedom, without pressure, without repression, no retaliation.”

In trials held behind closed doors, the journalists Miguel Mora and Miguel Mendoza, to 13 and 9 years in prisonrespectively, for alleged conspiracy against national integrity.

Mora was director of the 100% Noticias channel and a candidate for the presidential elections last November. Mendoza, an independent sports journalist, was also sentenced for the crime of spreading false news.

Since the beginning of the 2018 social protests against the Ortega government, it is estimated that some 120 journalists emigrated, mainly to Costa Rica, the United States and Spain, according to data from the Nicaraguan Human Rights Collective Never Again.

The most recent case is that of María Flordeliz Ordóñez, a contributor to the digital channel Notimatv, who left the country due to attacks suffered by agents of the National Police and government sympathizers.

For two consecutive years, Nicaragua, along with Venezuela and Cuba, has been among the countries without press freedom in the Chapultepec Index. This IAPA tool measures the performance of institutions in terms of freedom of expression and the press.

The IAPA is a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and expression in the Americas and is made up of more than 1,300 publications from the Western Hemisphere. (I)