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Alert

"La Prensa" newspaper and its journalists harassed for reporting on alleged corruption

(IAPA/IFEX) - The following is a 27 February 2006 IAPA press release:

IAPA concerned about harassment against La Prensa in Nicaragua

Miami (February 27, 2006) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemns the harassment against La Prensa newspaper in Nicaragua and its journalists and calls on authorities of that country to guarantee press freedom.

On Thursday, February 23, some 250 supporters of Alvaro Chamorro Mora, mayor of the city of Granada, traveled to Managua, approximately 45 kilometers away, where for an hour they blocked the entranceway to La Prensa, demanding a meeting with the newspaper's directors and that the paper stop publishing news from its correspondent on alleged irregularities in the Granada municipal government.

The chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, stated that "although no violence was reported and we understand this could be an isolated event, we trust that officials will be alert to incidents that could be directed against the press given the tense climate leading up to elections next November."

Directors of La Prensa complained to the IAPA about the harassment of reporters Arlen Cerda, in Granada, and José Garth, in Siuna, in northeastern Nicaragua, because of their articles on alleged corruption of officials from city government and the courts, respectively.

IAPA's concern is also based on recent incidents against press freedom in Nicaragua. In 2004, Nicaraguan journalists Carlos Guadamuz and María José Bravo, correspondent for La Prensa, were murdered.

Marroquín, editor of the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre, stressed, "The IAPA respects the right of citizens to express themselves freely within the law." The IAPA director mentioned that the organization would monitor the situation of the media and journalists that will cover elections this year in Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, as well as Nicaragua.