Jair Bolsonaro and the dictators of Cuba and Nicaragua have been included in the list of “predators of the press”

Cuban dictators Miguel Díaz-Canel and Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega on Monday entered the new list of political leaders considered “predators of press freedom” by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) because of the almost absolute control of information and the repression of journalists who do not follow the official line, as well as its policy of “economic asphyxiation” and “judicial censorship” of independent media.

RSF explains, in the first update of this list since 2016, that Díaz-Canel exercises “Soviet-type totalitarianism” and that since taking office in October 2019, he has maintained the line of his predecessor, Raúl Castro, with “almost absolute control over information”.

For this very reason, Raúl Castro had already been listed as a predator in previous editions.

The organization says that in Cuba, radio stations, televisions and newspapers are subject to close state surveillance and that the constitution does not even allow the existence of a private press.

Also that journalists who do not conform to the Castro line suffer daily “Arbitrary arrests, detentions, threats of imprisonment, persecution and harassment, illegal registration of residence, confiscation and destruction of journalistic material.”

The main targets of their attacks, according to the organization, are the independent and opposition press and “all dissenting voices.”

He also notes that the Cuban regime also intervenes in foreign media coverage by granting accreditations “selectively” and expel those he deems “too negative” with the regime.

In Latin America, Díaz-Canel is not the only “predator of press freedom” for RSF.

Share this situation with the dictators of Venezuela, Nicolas maduro (since coming to power in 2013), Nicaragua, Daniel ortega (since the start of his third consecutive term in November 2016), and the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro (since his accession to the head of state in 2019).

RSF explains that since the start of his third term as Ortega “The independent press is living a real nightmare, constantly oppressed by the Ortega government” and by the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

This has resulted in “threats, persecution, harassment and defamation campaigns, arbitrary arrests and detentions” or the so-called law regulating foreign agents to monitor media that receive funding from abroad.

Also in “a sordid system of economic suffocation”, with “discriminatory policies in official advertising, in the allocation of radio and television frequencies, with restrictions on the importation of material necessary for journalistic work, with audits” abusive ”or with pressure on advertisers.

The organization notes that in view of the presidential elections scheduled for November, Ortega “reinforced his arsenal of censorship” with “abusive” legal actions against all his opponents, both politically and in the media.

According to his analysis, the main victims of the attacks of the Nicaraguan dictator are the Chamorro family and the private media.

Regarding the first, he refers to Carlos Chamorro, founder of the Confidencial news site, and his sister Cristina, creator of the Violeta Chamorro Foundation.

In the case of Cristina Chamorro, presidential candidate in the November elections, she has been under house arrest since June 3, accused of money laundering.

RSF notes that around 20 journalists close to its foundation have also been subjected to questioning and intimidation to block the road to the electoral race.

In the case of Jair Bolsonaro, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) considers that his action since coming to power in 2019 towards the media, it is characterized by insults, humiliations and “vulgar threats”.

Since then – he underlines – “the work of the Brazilian press has become extremely complicated” since for him “it is useless” and is nothing more than “rumors and lies constantly”.

The organization blames Bolsonaro for its “warlike and crude rhetoric” which is amplified by its entourage and by “an organized base”, since from the social networks its supporters and robots amplify the attacks which seek to “discredit the press, presented as a enemy of the state ”.

The main targets of their attacks are women journalists, political analysts and the network World, which he called “funeral television” because it reports the number of deaths due to covid in Brazil.

According to RSF, this media group was the target of 180 attacks last year in which it was accused of wanting to “betray” and “destroy” the country.

Remember also that it is threatened not to obtain the renewal of its frequency in 2022.

Also on the list are Russian Head of State Vladimir Putin, Turkish Recep Tayip Erdogan and, for the first time, a leader of a European Union country, Hungarian President Viktor Orbán.

Less surprising that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman managed to get into this group, given the concentration of power in his hands since he was named successor by his father in 2017 and what RSF calls its “barbarism without limits”. .

Saudi Arabia – the organization recalls – is “one of the largest prisons in the world for journalists” and some of them are behind bars without knowing what they are accused of.

Without forgetting the case of the editorial writer of Washington post Jamal Khashoggi, killed and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

For the first time in this edition, there are two women “predators” at the same time, including the Hong Kong chief executive, to behave like “a puppet in the hands of Chinese President Xi Jinping in the ‘application of “liberticidal policies against the press” which led to the disappearance in June of the last independent newspaper, Apple Daily, and the imprisonment of its founder, Jimmy Lai.

The other is the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, who has ruled the country since 2009 and with a 2018 digital security law – still according to RSF – has led to legal proceedings against more than 70 journalists and bloggers.

Seven of the leaders of the organization’s blacklist have been since the first edition in 2001. For example, the leader of the Iranian revolution, Ali Khamenei, the presidents of Syria, Bashar Assad, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Belarus, Alexandr Loukachenko.

Also that of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who is the head of state in the world who has been in post for the longest time at the reins of what Reporters does not hesitate to call a “totalitarian dictatorship” in which the The media landscape is almost exclusively limited to state agencies responsible for disseminating “government propaganda” and where there is no foreign correspondent.

(With information from EFE)

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