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Recognising the survival of the press in exile is a democratic imperative requiring long-term support

Recognising the survival of the press in exile is a democratic imperative requiring long-term support
Nicaraguan journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro (L), director of Confidencial and Esta Semana news media, is pushed away by riot police outside El Confidencial offices in Managua on December 14, 2020. Police officers forcibly removed journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, when he held a press conference at the offices confiscated two years ago by the regime of President Daniel Ortega. (Photo by AFP)
Carlos F Chamorro
By Carlos F Chamorro
16 Jul 2024
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In Nicaragua, our only crime has been to do good journalism, to investigate and denounce corruption, state crimes, and serious human rights violations. And above all, not to remain silent, despite censorship.

A year ago, on February 15, 2023, my wife and I, along with 92 other Nicaraguan citizens, were stripped of our nationality, rendered stateless by the dictatorial regime of President Daniel Ortega.  

We were declared “traitors to the homeland”, deprived of our political rights, our names and identities were erased from the civil registry, and our property was confiscated by the state, including our social security pensions. 

The list of 94 people includes civic leaders, human rights defenders, several catholic priests, and 11 journalists and directors of exiled media outlets, including myself from Confidencial. 

Our only crime has been to do good journalism, to investigate and denounce corruption, state crimes, and serious human rights violations in Nicaragua. And above all, not to remain silent, despite censorship. 

Six days earlier, on February 9, 2023, another 222 people, all political prisoners, were deported to the US, and stripped of their Nicaraguan nationality. 

Released from prison


Among those released from prison were the seven aspiring presidential candidates, whom Ortega imprisoned to annul the November 2021 elections, in which, like Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2024, he re-elected himself without political competition. 

All the 222 political prisoners had been convicted without any evidence for alleged crimes of “conspiracy against national sovereignty”, “money laundering”, or “spreading fake news”. Most of them were held in a maximum security prison for up to 600 days.

This combination of pictures shows (clockwise) award-winning Nicaraguan writer and former vice-president, Sergio Ramirez; Nicaraguan writer Gioconda Belli; Journalist Carlos F Chamorro, and the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Managua, Silvio Jose Baez Ortega. (Photos: AFP/Ezequiel BECERRA/INTI OCON )



The severe human rights crisis I’m describing began in April 2018, when a national protest exploded across Nicaragua, with citizens demanding justice and free elections. The April rebellion meant 100 days of civic insurrection: large demonstrations, university occupations, barricades, and thousands of citizens armed only with their cellphones, demanding the ousting of dictator Ortega and his wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo.

The dictatorship’s response was a bloody massacre that left more than 350 people murdered with impunity, thousands of arbitrary detentions, and tens of thousands of exiles. There were also two National Dialogues, in which the government committed to restoring freedom, but never fulfilled that commitment. 

The repression against journalists included the assassination of Angel Gaona; physical assaults against reporters and the destruction of media outlets by paramilitary groups; television censorship; and customs blockades to prevent newspapers from getting paper and other materials. 

Closure and confiscation of media outlets


All this culminated in the closure and confiscation of media outlets, the imposition of new repressive laws against freedom of expression, and the imprisonment of journalists. 

My newsroom, Confidencial, was confiscated and seized by the police twice, in 2018 and 2021, when they stole all our personal documents, computers, and TV equipment. Despite all that, we never stopped reporting and broadcasting, not even for a single day, by using digital platforms and social media.

For six years now, Nicaraguans have been living under a police state, which has crushed all democratic freedoms.

There is no freedom of assembly or association, nor freedom of religion. In 2021, the regime erased the possibility of holding free elections, and since 2022 it has increased its relentless persecution against civil society, shutting down more than 4,000 non-governmental organisations, including religious organisations, private universities, and business associations.

Once again, the jails have more than 140 political prisoners and more than 100 citizens are under a system of de facto house arrest.

There are no longer foreign correspondents or independent sources to whom facts, data or analysis can be attributed. All news sources, without exception, request anonymity as a condition to inform or give their opinion to the press.

Under this double-sided criminalisation of both freedom of the press and freedom of expression, journalism done from exile remains the last preserve of all our freedoms. 

Our television programmes have been banned from broadcast and cable television, but we continue to reach a growing audience through our YouTube channel and Facebook.

Social media represents an extraordinary vehicle for overcoming censorship, but it has also become a space for disinformation and political polarisation that competes against the independent press.

Read more: Trump assassination attempt exposes the danger of partisan news coverage

One is never prepared to go into exile. But on June 15, 2021, my wife and I decided to cross over to Costa Rica, through blind spots, to escape an imminent capture, and to preserve my freedom to continue practising journalism. Now my entire newsroom, and practically all independent media, are working from exile. 

Exile is no longer a temporary or emergency situation that forces us to leave and relocate to another country. It's now a permanent, long-term condition that poses immense challenges for journalism. 

I’ll mention five: 

  1. The challenge of preserving security; physical security, internet security, and providing security to our sources in the country with secure channels of communication.

  2. We also have to raise the standards of verification and corroborating anonymous sources in order to continue publishing reliable information. Our main challenge, every day, is not to immerse ourselves in the bubble of exile, but rather to continue investigating and recounting the crisis of a totalitarian family dictatorship. The public corruption and extortion against businesses and citizens; the persecution against the Catholic Church; the erosion caused by the regime’s political vigilance against public officials; the mass exodus of Nicaraguans; and the stories of pain and hope in our daily lives.

  3. We also face the challenge of continuing to innovate in digital platforms to strengthen our relationship with our audiences. When the rule of the law has collapsed, we only depend on our audiences to defend journalism and our own credibility.

  4. We must continue to promote collaborative journalism and transnational investigations with the regional and international press.

  5. Last, but not least, we face the challenge of the financial sustainability of journalism in exile. The criminalisation of our traditional advertisers forces us to look for new models of economic management to finance the independence of our media through international grants, audience contributions, and commercial monetisation.


But this also demands a paradigm shift for philanthropic foundations and international aid agencies that support independent journalism. It becomes necessary to recognise that the survival of the press in exile, not only in Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela, but also in Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and other countries is a democratic imperative that requires long-term support strategies.

Carlos F Chamorro is pushed away by riot police outside El Confidencial offices in Managua on December 14, 2020. Police officers forcibly removed him when he held a press conference at the offices confiscated two years ago by the regime of President Daniel Ortega. (Photo: AFP)



None of our journalistic investigations about corruption and violations of human rights produced any change or correction in the public policies of Ortega’s autocratic regime, which is not designed to be held accountable. However, many of these stories are valuable inputs for the report on crimes against humanity in Nicaragua produced by the Group of Experts on Human Rights of the United Nations.

The resistance of the press in exile under a dictatorship is not enough to clear the way for democratic change, but as long as we continue to do more and better journalism, it will keep the flame of freedom of the press, as the first and the last of all freedoms. DM

*Chamorro is the recipient of the Golden Pen of Freedom 2024. He is also the Director of El Confidencial Digital.

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