Inter American Press Association

IFEX-ALC is sending a joint delegation alongside the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC-ALC) and the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) to the UN Office in Geneva in the run-up to Nicaragua’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on 15 May.

IAPA President María Elvira Domínguez said, “We are pleased that after so many years of seeking justice in the case of Nelson [Carvajal] and his family members we will be witnesses and part of a ceremony in which there will be recognized the need to obtain justice for cases such as this one not to occur again.”

IAPA condemned the administrative censorship imposed by the Nicaraguan government on La Prensa and El Nuevo Diario, by withholding the delivery of supplies for the publication of the two newspapers.

The president of the IAPA declared that advances in legal and digital issues were overshadowed by the murders of 31 journalists and media workers, the imprisonment of five others, and by the constant attacks on individual and social liberties in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

So far this year 30 journalists have been murdered in the region, 20 of them since the IAPA’s last meeting in April 2018.

His colleagues said that he had been working for 15 years at the radio station and that he was dedicated to disseminating community issues and the needs of the local population. It is not known if he had received death threats.

In a week full of tense confrontations between protesters and police, there were several acts of violence against journalists, including the deplorable murder of reporter Ángel Gahona.

Leobardo Vázquez Atkin’s colleagues said that he had planned to ask for protection due to threats received following the publication of criticisms of a notary public and former municipal authorities.