A worsening crackdown on independent media by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's government saw 46 journalists forced into exile and several arrested last year, a Costa Rica-based NGO reported Monday.
"In the last months of 2024, the government intensified its repression through forced disappearances, exile and arbitrary detentions targeting independent media and journalists," the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy said.
In total, 283 media workers have been forced into exile "to protect their lives and those of their families" since anti-government protests in 2018 were met with a violent crackdown, the report said, reports AFP.
Four journalists were detained last year: Fabiola Tercero, whose whereabouts are unknown; Henry Briceno, who was later expelled to Costa Rica with his family; and Leo Carcamo and Elsbeth D'Anda, who are both in prison, according to the NGO.
The Costa-Rica based Inter-American Court of Human Rights this month asked Nicaragua's government to "immediately" release Carcamo, who was arrested in November.
The same month, D'Anda was detained after reporting on a local television channel about rising food prices.
Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of real and perceived opponents since former leftist guerrilla Ortega returned to power in 2007, quashing presidential term limits and seizing control of all branches of the state.
According to the United Nations, more than 300 people died in a crackdown on the 2018 protests, which Ortega's government denounced as an attempted coup.
Most independent and opposition media now operate from abroad.
A toughening of the country's cyber-crime laws last year was seen by opponents as paving the way for the imprisonment of social media users critical of the regime.
TF
