Commitee for the Protection of Journalists - doubletalk on Nicaragua

Submitted bytortilla onDom, 24/05/2020 - 08:09

Stephen Sefton, Tortilla con Sal, May 24th 2020

On May 28th 2020, violent opposition activists attacked and burned down the pro-government Nueva Radio Ya, Nicaragua's most popular radio station. Over twenty journalists and radio workers were working inside the radio station at the time of the carefully planned attack. Simultaneously, opposition activists violently blocked firefighters and police officers attempting to reach the burning radio station to assist those inside. One police officer was shot dead during the incident.


Opposition activists attacking Nueva Radio Ya

A handful of foreign writers and the video outlet Redfish made the effort in 2018 to interview the journalists and radio workers of Nueva Radio Ya who experienced the attack. This comprehensive, exhaustive report by Dick and Miriam Emanuelsson includes video interviews with Nueva Radio Ya journalists.

The violent opposition attackers themselves posted video and photographs  of their attack on social media. The motive for their attack was clearly to silence a pro-government media outlet.

The immediate provocation preceding the attack consisted of a flurry of reports from the opposition 100% Noticias television news outlet, falsely claiming that they themselves had been attacked by sandinista supporters and that  armed sandinista activists were attacking students using Nueva Radio Ya as their base.

This inflammatory, false reporting by 100% Noticias journalists Miguel Mora and Jackson Orozco played a leading role in deliberately inciting the attack which was very well coordinated.

While some opposition activists attacked the radio station itself, others successfully blocked firefighters from reaching the scene and others blocked potential escape routes for the radio workers and journalists trapped inside.

The US Committee for the Protection of Journalists issued a statement condemning the attack which implicitly placed the blame on the government for not protecting the journalists. Their statement begins:


Max Blumenthal talks with staff at the burnt out shell
of Nuevo Radio Ya following the murderous attack
by right wing opposition activists
"Nicaraguan authorities should investigate an attack on a pro-government radio station in Managua, the capital, hold the perpetrators to account, and ensure that journalists covering ongoing unrest in the country can work safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today."

Subsequently, the authorities did indeed arrest some of the attackers and also Miguel Mora, head of 100% Noticias, along with his colleague, Lucía Pineda. Their dishonest inflammatory reporting during many violent incidents lead the Nicaraguan public prosecutor to apply the country’s long standing legislation against incitement to hatred. Mora and Pineda were sent to trial on an indictment based on dozens of accusations by Sandinista victims of opposition violence and their relatives. They all accused Mora of hatefully instigating the attacks suffered by them and their relatives, just as Mora and his colleagues had done in the attack on Nueva Radio Ya.

Later in 2019, Mora and Pineda benefited from a government amnesty and was set free. Then, the CPJ issued a statement saying:

"While we are delighted that Miguel Mora and Lucía Pineda are finally able to return home without these absurd charges hanging over them, they should never have been arrested or spent a day, much less nearly six months, unjustly imprisoned'"

The Committee for the Protection of Journalist even went so far reward Mora for his hateful, false journalism with one of their International Press Freedom awards. 

Among the very few writers to expose this kind of doubletalk by the Committee to Protect Journalists has been the Morning Star's Steve Sweeney, who commented on Mora's prize, reporting:

" While Mora has tried to portray himself as a plucky victim of the brutal Sandinista regime, the reality is somewhat different. In May 2018 he falsely claimed that his TV station was under attack by government supporters. In retaliation he urged oppositionists to attack the Sandinista station Nuevo Radio Ya... He has also made public calls for Daniel Ortega to be killed and his inflammatory reporting is said to be responsible for hundreds of deaths during the violent armed coup attempt in 2018."

Not a single Western mainstream media outlet nor any of the leading alternative media outlets have ever featured reports with first hand witness interviews of the attack on Nueva Radio Ya. Despite this incident and hundreds of other examples of violent oppostion attacks on institutions and organizations identified with the government and on Sandinista supporters, practically all Western mainstream and alternative media continue to report falsely that the protests in Nicaragua in 2018 were peaceful.

Opposition media outlets like La Prensa, television channels 10, 12 and 23 as well as 100% Noticias, radio stations like Radio Corporación and many other local opposition controlled radio outlets freely broadcast attacks on the government and false news reports. Even so, hypocritical organizations like the Committee for the Protection of Journalists continue to make false claims about lack of freedom of expression in Nicaragua. But they have given prizes to individuals like Miguel Mora and his team of journalists, responsible for provoking the destruction of Nicaragua's most popular radio news outlet.