Nicaraguan dissident media outlet pauses due to lack of support

SAN JOSE (EFE).— The Nicaraguan media outlet in exile “Nicaragua Investiga” declared a “strike” for a week yesterday, due to the lack of support from “those who claim to value democracy and the work of the free press.”

“Today, ‘Nicaragua Investiga’ is going on strike. We will not publish content for a week. We are going to let the country know what it looks like with one less media outlet, and hopefully one day we will no longer be the ones who shut down, and not for a week, but forever,” wrote its director, the denationalized Nicaraguan journalist Jennifer Ortiz, in a message.

In her writing, titled “Imagine a country without journalism,” Jennifer Ortiz commented that Nicaraguan journalists in exile are always told “strength,” “courage,” “resist,” or often: “how brave!”, but at the same time, she reflected that “every struggle leads to exhaustion and a breaking point, and just like every person who reads us, we also have family responsibilities and emotional burdens to bear.”

“We have many battle fronts, but the two that are most difficult for us are: the regime (of Daniel Ortega), which forced us into exile, declared us criminals, denationalized us and persecutes us every day, and those who claim to value democracy and the work of the free press, but refuse to pay a membership or support our continuity in any way, as well as those organizations that can do something for journalism, but are not keeping pace with our reality and our challenges,” he analyzed.

Exhausting

Jennifer Ortiz (1986), one of the 22 Nicaraguan communicators critical of the Ortega government who were declared traitors to the homeland, fugitives from justice, stateless and deprived of their property in February 2023, within a group of 94, said she firmly believes “that we are a necessary media outlet and this strike is for our team, but also for all those who deserve information within Nicaragua and who need a space where their voices are heard.”

Before announcing her strike, the Nicaraguan journalist wrote on Facebook that “I would swear that in Nicaragua journalism is one of the most emotionally exhausting professions there is.”

“There are no complaints for those who have retired (from the profession), nor should there be any complaints for those of us who are seriously considering it,” he said.

He then observed that in the two battles that journalism is fighting in Nicaragua, “everyone wins, except the journalist,” who, he said, “have lost everything, and we are still trying to make sense of it.”

“I hope that one day there will be media outlets that can resist these struggles, because a country without journalism is a country without denunciation and without balance. But perhaps that is what we might deserve one day. Cruel… yes, but that is what we are forging, it is just too early to realize it,” he said.

Last Thursday, the 1st, another media outlet, the “Nicaragua Actual” platform, decided to suspend operations for an indefinite period “due to not having the necessary resources for the operation of the media outlet,” and also announced that its website was offline due to lack of payment on the server.

On July 11, the Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN) movement expressed its “deep concern over the alarming situation facing the independent press in our country,” where more than 264 journalists have gone into exile for security reasons, and more than 50 media outlets have already closed.

Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo has accused critical journalists of “inventing anything to spread terror,” calling them “evil,” “hypocrites,” “destroyers,” “criminals,” “communication terrorists,” and thanking God that they are “just a few miserable people” in the country.