El Salvador

The bill would require entities and people who receive funding or support from abroad to register as a “foreign agent” with the Interior Ministry and would severely limit the activities in which these organizations can engage.

The undersigned civil society organizations, committed to the defense of the rule of law, human rights and democracy in Latin America, strongly reject the decisions adopted on May 1 by the Salvadoran Congress to arbitrarily remove from office the judges and alternate judges of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Attorney General, and to irregularly appoint their replacements, in violation of the constitutional and international legal framework, and warn of a serious risk to the preservation of the democratic system in the country.

“President Bukele appears committed to continuing his anti-press rhetoric and spreading rumors in a campaign to damage El Salvador’s independent media,” said CPJ.

Salvadoran authorities should make public any details about an alleged criminal investigation into ‘InSight Crime’ journalist Héctor Silva Ávalos and stop using official social media channels to criticize and harass independent journalists.

IFEX-ALC joins over 100 organizations in warning that the El Salvador government’s measures to tackle COVID-19 have created a violent and hostile environment that hinders the work of Women Human Rights Defenders.

Violent crime is pervasive in El Salvador and several journalists have been murdered in recent years; read about the safety training being given to the local journalists who are most at risk.

Salvadoran authorities must conduct a swift and credible investigation of escalating online and physical threats against journalists at two digital news outlets and enact sufficient measures to ensure the journalists’ safety.

Mayor of San Salvador, Nayib Bukele, sues La Prensa Gráfica for six million dollars, alleging grievances caused by press investigations.

For the past several months, Nicolás García, 23, had been hosting a programme on El Carrizal-based radio Expressa, voces al aire in which he advised local residents on how to protect themselves from violence.

The Inter American Press Association asked the El Salvador Attorney General’s Office to carry out an exhaustive and swift investigation following a formal complaint of Internet attacks on the newspaper La Prensa Gráfica, an offense that has been repeated with increasing frequency in the countries of the Americas.

The president’s relations with the media have been distant and he has shown little interest in answering questions.

Aged 23, Carlos José Orellana worked for local TV station Canal 99. The police investigating his death have not as yet suggested a possible motive.

Reporters Without Borders joins the Association of Salvadoran Journalists (APES) in calling for an investigation into a death threat made in broad daylight against a crew from the television station Canal 12 in Santa Tecla.

Jonathan Martínez Castro, a “marero” (gang member), was sentenced by a San Salvador court for the April 2011 murder of Canal 33 cameraman Alfredo Hurtado. His alleged accomplice, Marlon Abrego Rivas, also known as “Gato,” is currently a fugitive.

El Salvador’s new generation of journalists would do well to be proactive, to work together, and to speak as one on the issues that endanger them all, says CPJ.

The editor of the news website El Faro says his staff members have been followed after the site reported on a criminal network involving politicians.