It is urgent to coordinate actions to protect journalists in exile

WASHINGTON—

Journalism in exile needs greater comprehensive attention as the number of communicators seen grows. forced to seek refuge in other countries to safeguard your safety.

The cases of Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba, and more recently El Salvador and Guatemala, They put in the spotlight a regional problem that international organizations try to alleviate with joint initiatives.

In the case of Nicaragua, the coordinator of the Observatory of Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua (PCIN), Arlen Pérez, told the Voice of America that the needs for comprehensive protection are urgent, because some journalists in their country still suffer persecution in exile, with threats to their integrity and harassment through digital platforms.

While they have to deal with maintenance needs, find work and navigate all the state bureaucracy of the host country to regularize their immigration status (some accept to be relocated to other countries), in many cases they distance themselves from the profession and the trade that connected them with Nicaragua, which entails a loss for journalism and freedom of expression. he stated.

The data – Pérez said – speak for themselves, attacks in Nicaragua against journalists are counted in dozens in the observatory’s semi-annual reports, and the number of exiled journalists continues to grow, to the point of counting 276 Nicaraguan journalists in exile from 2018 to date. .

“So far this year alone we have reported more than 10 journalists who have had to go to other countries in relocation or safe mobility programs, because even in Costa Rica (destination of several exiles) they still do not feel protected from attacks.” ”, noted Pérez.

And he added that they have detected “transnational attacks as a pattern,” based on the monitoring of cases carried out by the PCIN observatory.

He said that the problem calls for urgent action because “the solutions are no longer just Nicaraguans, what we are experiencing is already beginning to be experienced in El Salvador, Guatemala; That is to say, journalists in exile are not exclusive to Nicaragua and that is one of the things that we always want to warn about,” he stated.

Commits to guaranteeing security for exiled journalists

UNESCO announced a joint working group to provide “comprehensive security for journalists in exile.”

This intergovernmental group seeks to coordinate actions with civil society organizations, embassies and other international organizations to provide support to journalists in Central America and Colombia; this from two crisis centers: Nicaragua and Venezuela, from where journalists seek protection in neighboring countries.

The organization said in a release that the working group adheres to the UN mandate to “promote and defend freedom of expression and the press,” while emphasizing the urgent need to protect journalists.

“This cooperation mechanism will facilitate the promotion of synergies between interested parties, the reduction of duplication of efforts and the development of a strategy to improve the comprehensive security of hundreds of journalists in refuge status in the region,” said the agency. the UN.

A first meeting last month in Costa Rica made it possible to identify some crucial points to address the situation, where they have had the commitment of some 30 embassies, universities and NGOs, among others, and where the participants identified “the main challenges” of the organizations to address comprehensive security problems of exiled journalists in Costa Rica.

He report presented in July by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, raised the urgency of the matter, stating that mechanisms must be established for “the safety of journalists and the viability of independent media in exile.”

The rapporteur highlighted that abandoning exiled journalists who promote projects to keep the population of their country informed under authoritarian governments would lead to “informational black holes and zones of silence on issues that concern communities on a national and international scale.”

The UN analysis suggests taking advantage of information technologies that allow journalists to set up reporting projects and easily reach their audiences with the multiple digital platforms that increasingly allow them to “work from abroad when they cannot do so safely.” in his country.”

However, it recognizes that exiled journalists in many cases face “precarious situations” and feel the weight of physical, digital and legal threats, even extended to their family environment “from the States of origin.”

The most worrying thing for the UN is that to date there are no legal statutes that provide journalists with security and adequate support to “continue practicing their profession in the country where they are exiled.”

A constant battle

Journalist Gerall Chávez, a Nicaraguan exile in Costa Rica, delved into these difficulties and the limits posed by some intentions of cooperating agencies.

Chávez, founder of the media Nicaragua Actual, commented to theVOA that the first need of the journalist in exile is to survive in order to continue reporting. And this, which might seem easy, entails enormous challenges when you are exiled and have to redo an entire life plan: from sorting out obtaining documents, to creating projects for those with initiatives and managing them, which requires other skills beyond To do journalism, in short – he said – “you have to reinvent yourself.”

Resources are also not abundant in a highly competitive sector with hundreds of journalists looking for opportunities outside their country, in that sense “the support of the international community is crucial so that the projects are maintained over time,” and that journalism in Nicaragua , for example, does not disappear, he stated.

Gerall warned that the experience of exiled Nicaraguan journalists “has not yet permeated the international community, which does not reflect the real situation in Nicaragua.”

Support for projects from international organizations poses limits for those that do not have legally constituted organizations. said.

“The majority left Nicaragua and entered Costa Rica and, here, looked for a way to survive. Most case projects like UNESCO are cumbersome and we have seen some applications and they ask you to be legally constituted, to have experience, this does not contribute to the journalistic issue of promoting freedom of expression and does not support journalists in exile,” he noted. .

This journalist suggests changing methodologies to address the situation, especially in making the requirements more flexible when they are “cumbersome” because in many cases the design of the proposals “does not apply to journalists in exile and who are fleeing a dictatorial regime.” , like Nicaragua, he said.

Arlen Pérez supported this point and said that many programs do not adjust to the needs of a country and gives as an example living in Costa Rica, where the cost of living is much higher than in Nicaragua and where you have to assume all the expenses. costs from housing to maintenance, forcing journalists to look for more jobs to survive.

The situation is more complicated – Pérez added – with the changing legislation on migration in a host country like Costa Rica, which has become an “endless circle” to be able to regularize their legal situation, while at the same time there is no differentiation for journalism in comparison with other migrants in the face of vulnerability, as proposed by UNESCO.

“I arrived in the country in 2022 and at that time they gave you a card that said Work Permit, a white card that allowed me to work in Costa Rica immediately, then the legislation was changed and they said that they were going to give you an applicant card. of refuge and until you were registered in the Costa Rican Social Security Fund you could have a work permit, but this is an endless circle, because to be able to register as an independent worker you pay about 50 dollars, and if you don’t have a job you can’t have 50 dollars a month, and you can’t have a job if you don’t have that work permit,” he said.

Pérez affirmed that this coming and going in the legal situation “has destabilized” the exiled journalists even more. Added to that is the outrage when the Nicaraguan authorities refuse to revalidate their legal documentation to carry out procedures, for example, when a passport expires and they cannot renew it.

What they define in the environment as “Civil death, which is when legal documents expire and you cannot renew them”, so the difficulties cross several levels that exiled journalists must deal with to move forward on a daily basis and maintain the spirit of continuing to report from exile.

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