OAS » IACHR » Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression » Nicaragua

Freedom of Expression

Nicaragua

PRINCIPLE 6 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Compulsory membership in an association for the practice of journalism)

 25.              In December 2004, the Board of Directors of the Colegio de Periodistas was installed, constituting that organ, and, therefore, making it possible to enforce Law 372, whose Article 6 requires journalists to join the Colegio as a condition for exercising their profession. It had not been possible to enforce that law, on the books since 2000, because the Colegio had not been formed. A lawsuit was filed challenging the constitutionality of this law, which has yet to be resolved. The Office of the Special Rapporteur recalls that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in its advisory opinion OC-5/85, determined that the requirement of compulsory membership in an association as a condition for working as a journalist violates Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights.[1]

 PRINCIPLE 9 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Murder, kidnapping, intimidation of and/or threats to social communicators, as well as the material destruction of communications media)

 26.              On February 10, journalist Carlos José Guadamuz Portillo was murdered; he was 59 years old, and hosted the program “Dardos al centro” [“Darts to the Bull’s Eye”], broadcast on Canal 23, in Managua, Nicaragua. The person responsible was identified as William Hurtado García, who confessed to the crime.[2] On April 19, 2004, Hurtado García was convicted and sentenced to 21 years in prison for the crimes of murder and attempted murder of Guadamuz and his son, who was accompanying him.[3] The Office of the Special Rapporteur learned that Guadamuz had received death threats earlier.[4]

 27.              On November 9, 2004, the correspondent for the daily papers La Prensa and Hoy, María José Bravo, was murdered outside the elections office in the city of Juigalpa, department of Chontales, when covering the protests of political groups over the results of the November 7 elections in Juigalpa. That same day, the police arrested Eugenio Hernández González, former mayor of the municipality of El Ayote, as the main suspect in the assassination, along with two other suspects. As of the writing of this report, the motive of the murder had not been determined.[5]

 28.              In August 2004, the Office of the Special Rapporteur received information on acts of intimidation against journalist Sergio León Corea, correspondent of La Prensa in Bluefields. León published information on a criminal gang. In 2003, the Office of the Special Rapporteur also received information on threats to and intimidation of León.[6]

 29.              On August 20, 2004, journalist Mirna Velásquez, of La Prensa, was intimidated by a judge from Managua, who reportedly warned her that he had information about her activities and that they would continue watching her, after she reported on complaints against him.[7]

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