Guatemala City, April 7, 2023—Nicaraguan authorities should immediately release journalist Victor Ticay and cease detaining members of the press for their work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.
On the morning of Thursday, April 6, police in the southwestern town of Nandaime arrested Ticay, a reporter for the privately owned TV broadcaster Canal 10, according to multiple news reports. His detention stemmed from the journalist’s April 5 reporting on Facebook about a Catholic Easter celebration. The government of President Daniel Ortega has banned public expressions of religion.
“The Nicaraguan government has once again shown little respect for the right to freedom of expression amid an absurd climate of total censorship, which extends even to religious activities,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “Authorities must release journalist Victor Ticay at once and cease their relentless campaign to intimidate and threaten the press into silence or exile.”
Press Freedom Alerts Nicaragua, a social media-based outlet that documents attacks on the media, reported that Ticay posted a video of the Easter celebration on the Facebook news page La Portada, which he runs, but it was taken down following his arrest. An executive at Canal 10 confirmed the journalist’s detention, those news reports said.
CPJ emailed the Nicaraguan national police but did not immediately receive a response.