MANAGUA, NICARAGUA - Journalists at Canal 12 News, one of Nicaragua’s two remaining independent news broadcasters, face an uncertain future after a court in the capital, Managua, ordered the station’s assets seized as part of a tax case that one of its editors says is political retaliation.
The freeze affects Nicavision S.A., which operates Canal 12. The court order enforces a demand by the country's tax agency that Canal 12 pay more than U.S. $500,000 in taxes due from 2011 to 2013, according to Managua weekly newspaper .
Judge Luden Quiroz García's September 11 order to seize the broadcast facilities, station vehicles and the owner's personal estate is the latest in a series of audits and asset seizures faced by news organizations that report critically on the government of President Daniel Ortega.
“The government is going to try to silence the few TV stations that are left and telling the stories they don't want to hear," Canal 12 News director Marcos Medina told VOA.
In Nicaragua, the majority of large media outlets are owned by members of Ortega's family or his political allies.
“This perverse action threatens freedom of the press and expression," tweeted the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights. "We demand that the regime desist from its strategy of intimidating journalists and destroying independent media.”
advierte también que esta acción perversa atenta contra la libertad de prensa y expresión. Exigimos al régimen desista en su estrategia de intimidar a periodistas y destruir a medios de comunicación independientes.
The station, which issued a statement calling the amount "arbitrary and excessive," went under a government audit in 2018. Earlier that year, it reported on deadly police crackdowns on a wave of anti-government protests over cuts to social security and calls for Ortega's resignation.
Comunicado oficial
Wilfredo Navarro, a lawmaker with the ruling Sandinista Front, defended the move, calling the court decision "a simple matter."
"Everyone must pay taxes and the right-wing media blames it on ‘political persecution,’ [but] they don't want to pay taxes," he told VOA by phone. "The Canal 12 is an old problem; they have been on trial for months, they appealed and now this is the verdict."
Some international observers disagree.
The American Chamber of Commerce of Nicaragua, a nonprofit that promotes trade between the U.S. and Nicaragua, condemned the ruling, saying it disrespects the “rule of law and affects not only businessmen but the population in general.”
"Nicaraguan authorities should stop using financial investigations to intimidate independent media and should allow Canal 12 to report freely without fear of reprisal,” said a statement by Natalie Southwick, South and Central America program coordinator for the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Canal 12's top editor, Carolina Valle, who called the court order a form of “political retaliation,” told CPJ that the station remains operational but that its bank accounts have been frozen. She also said the judge ordered seizure of all personal assets held by the station's owner, Mariano Valle Peters.
Officials at the Nicaraguan General Income Directorate, the country’s tax agency, and Managua's embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment. The Ortega government, which is currently observing a weeklong holiday, has not commented on the court order, although sources close to the ruling party told VOA's Latin America division that the decision was justified. They did not elaborate.
Canal 12 News director Medina said the decision, which creates uncertainty for more than 20 staff at the station, mirrors harassment of other outlets.
"The same type of pressure was faced by 100% Noticias and ," he said, referring to outlets that faced Ortega government-led actions after reporting on the 2018 demonstrations.
, Nicaragua's longest-running and best-known daily broadsheet, after an 18-month government-enforced blockade of newsprint supplies, resulting in massively diminished circulation and newsroom-wide layoffs. The government lifted the blockade in February amid international pressure and calls from the Vatican.
In December 2018, 100% Noticias, also known as Canal 15, had its operating license revoked and its offices confiscated by Nicaragua’s National Police. The channel's director, Miguel Mora, and journalist Lucía Pineda Ubau both served six-month jail sentences for inciting terrorism.
"Now the same is happening to Canal 12," Medina said. "They don't like the type of journalism we do, especially since April of 2018."