'We're going to kill you': Nicaragua's brutal crackdown on press freedom

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/dec/10/nicaragua-journalists-press-freedom-crackdown-ortega

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Journalists have been beaten, arrested and robbed; radio stations raided by police. Last week, both the UN and the IACHR condemned the intensifying harassment.

“This government has banned protest, captured opposition leaders, and now the only thing preventing a totalitarian dictatorship is the independent media,” says Mora. “This is the stage where they try to silence us.”

Anti-government protests broke out in April, sparked by the mismanagement of fires in a protected reserve and fuelled by fiscal reforms that slashed social security. They spread after police used live ammunition on demonstrators, killing dozens.


As the crisis worsened, 100% Noticias beamed police and paramilitary violence into homes across the country. Newspapers exposed the state’s lethal tactics: one investigation drew on radiographic evidence to show that many of the deaths were the result of a single gunshot to the head, neck or chest – proof that state forces were shooting to kill.