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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MANAGUA 000916 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/CEN KRAAIMOORE 
DEPT FOR DRL MAGGIO 
DEPT FOR INR/IIA ARCHULETA 
STATE FOR USOAS 
STATE FOR USAID 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/20/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PLAB PHUM NU
SUBJECT: NICARAUGA: FREEDOM OF THE PRESS UNDER ATTACK AGAIN...
 
REF: A. MANAGUA 794 
     ¶B. MANAGUA 626 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Robert J. Callahan for reasons 1.4 (b & d) 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Freedom of the press in Nicaragua remains 
under attack by President Daniel Ortega's ruling Sandinista 
National Liberation Front (FSLN).  The party has sought to 
amend journalism laws in an effort to discourage, if not 
outright censor, media reports critical of Ortega and the 
party.  In addition to the proposed amendments to law, the 
FSLN continues to withhold critical financial support to 
unsympathetic media outlets while running a systematic 
campaign of sometimes-physical assaults against these same 
outlets. END SUMMARY 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
Proposed Changes to Journalism Laws - Censorship? 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶2. (SBU)  The FSLN, which de facto controls the National 
Assembly, has proposed changing Law 372 (titled the Law of 
the Journalist's Association), which currently establishes 
and regulates the National Journalist's College of Nicaragua 
(CPN).  The association has been historically controlled by 
FSLN-leaning journalists.  Under the current law, 
participation and membership in this association of 
journalists is completely voluntary.  If the amendments to 
Law 372 pass, all journalists in Nicaragua would be forced to 
become members of the CPN.  This would be problematic for 
independent journalists because the CPN has an ethics code 
based on FSLN principles and that is enforced by an Ethics 
Code Committee which can punish or expel a journalist from 
the association without appeal.  Once a journalist is 
expelled from the CPN, he or she would no longer be able to 
practice journalism, effectively censoring any journalist 
critical of the FSLN. 
 
----------------- 
Union Cooperation 
----------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU)  The Union of Nicaraguan Journalists (UPN), which is 
the largest journalism union in the country, gathered in the 
National Assembly on September 8 to celebrate the 
International Day of the Journalist.  At this special session 
of the National Assembly, the president of UPN, Roberto 
Larios, declared that "a journalist is essentially a 
politician who should be on the majority's side in agreement 
with the popular struggle."  He went on to elaborate that he 
did not believe that the role of a journalist was to be 
impartial in any political battle.  Larios also announced in 
the National Assembly that the UPN would be pre-empting the 
proposed amendments to Law 372 by joining the CPN.  (NOTE: 
Larios was installed as leader of the UPN earlier this year 
via an election plagued by irregularities. END NOTE) 
 
------------------------------------- 
Charges Presented to the UN in Report 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU)  On September 10 in Guatemala, Dr. Vilma Nunez of 
the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (CENIDH) presented a 
report to the United Nations describing deteriorating press 
freedoms in Nicaragua.  Nunez said in a speech accompanying 
the release of the report that if law 372 was "accepted as 
compulsory, union members would be in the hands of a body 
which may or may not allow the practice of journalism in 
Nicaragua."  The CENIDH report also stated that if Law 372 
was changed in the manner that the FSLN wants, that it would 
put Nicaragua in direct violation of its obligations as 
signatory to three international agreements that guarantee 
political and human rights: The Declaration of Chapultepec, 
Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights and the 
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The charges leveled by the CENIDH report include that the government had unfairly supported friendly media outlets with financial incentives at the expense of outlets critical of the GON. In addition, members of the business community have been harassed by the government for taking out advertisements in media outlets critical of the FSLN. The CENIDH report details the recent spate of attacks by pro-FSLN gangs against independent journalists, such as the August 8 attack against a journalist filming the Civil Society Coordinator march (see reftel A). It also describes attacks against various media outlets, including Radio La Ley (see reftel B) and Radio Dario, two opposition stations openly critical of Ortega.
 
----------------- 
Ortega's Response 
----------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU)  On September 10, President Ortega gave a speech in 
front of the Sandinista National Party in which he railed 
against the media, claiming that it is "in service of the 
empire," referring to the United States.  First Lady Rosario 
Murrillo, who also holds the unofficial post of Coordinator 
of Communication and Citizenship, was more blunt in her 
criticism of the media.  She referred to the media as "tools 
and weapons of the enemy" that must be dealt with by 
"remov(ing) all power that it has." 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶8. (C)  Nicaragua,s independent media are one of the few 
remaining bulwarks against Ortega,s increasingly 
authoritarian rule.  The recent attacks against independent 
journalists during the August 8 march, and the FSLN-inspired 
amendments to Law 372 that would require all journalists to 
join the CPN to practice journalism, are only the latest 
rounds in the ongoing struggle to dismantel free speech in 
Nicaragua.  In this round, the bellicose rhetoric from Ortega 
is being matched by institutional threats to the profession 
and direct physical violence against journalists by FSLN 
street gangs. 
CALLAHAN