El Salvador / Americas

  
Nayib Bukele

CPJ, partners express concern over growing deterioration of press freedom in El Salvador

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 17 other international organizations in a joint statement Wednesday warning about the swift deterioration in press freedom in El Salvador, after at least 40 journalists have had to leave the country due to a sustained pattern of harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary restrictions on their work. The Salvadoran Journalists Association…

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Óscar Martínez, editor-in-chief of the Salvadoran outlet El Faro, and nine other journalists left El Salvador after publishing a report alleging ties between President Nayib Bukele and criminal groups. (Photo: Courtesy of Óscar Martínez)

‘We know what’s coming: exile or prison’ – El Faro’s Óscar Martínez on surviving Bukele’s crackdown

Journalists at El Faro knew the risks when they published a series of interviews with gang members alleging long-standing ties between Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and criminal groups. They didn’t know how quickly the crackdown would escalate. Within days of publication last month, sources close to El Salvador’s attorney general’s office warned that arrest warrants…

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Nicaraguan lawmakers

CPJ, partners warn El Salvador, Nicaragua legislation could harm press freedom

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 21 other international and local press freedom organizations in a joint statement Friday rejecting laws approved in El Salvador and Nicaragua that could severely affect press freedom, freedom of expression, and access to information in those countries. On May 16, Nicaraguan lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment that allows the…

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El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly

Salvadoran congress approves ‘foreign agents’ law that threatens press freedom

Mexico City, May 30, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Friday called on El Salvador to repeal a newly enacted “foreign agents” law that poses a serious threat to press freedom by targeting media outlets, nonprofit organizations, and individual journalists who receive international funding. “President Nayib Bukele’s foreign agents law is a blatant move to…

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El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele speaks during a ceremony at the airport in San Luis Talpa on October 19. Bukele proposed a new law that would require journalists and media outlets who receive international funds to register as "foreign agents." (Reuters/Jose Cabezas)

7 Salvadorian journalists face charges after report on president’s alleged gang ties

Mexico City, May 7, 2025—Salvadoran authorities should drop all criminal proceedings against journalists with El Faro, after the independent news site published video interviews with two gang leaders about their alleged years-long relationship with President Nayib Bukele, said the Committee to Protect Journalists Wednesday. “Treating journalism as a criminal act deprives Salvadorans of essential information,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America…

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CPJ, 24 other organizations release report on state censorship in the Americas

Twenty-four civil society organizations working in seven Latin American countries, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, released a November 2024 report titled “Impact of state censorship measures on the right to freedom of expression in the Americas,” which included information provided during the 190th regular session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in July 2024.  The press freedom groups work in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador,…

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El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 24, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Segar - RC287AA120O6

A ‘culture of silence’ threatens press freedom under El Salvador President Bukele 

Nearly 80,000 people have been detained, and up to 200 may have died in state custody, since El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s declared a state of emergency in March 2022, temporarily suspending constitutional rights and civil liberties in the country in the name of fighting gang violence. Local journalists and human rights organizations have raised concerns that Bukele, who…

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In this March 18, 1982 photo, television cameramen photograph blood-soaked, bullet-ridden clothes believed to belong to four Dutch journalists killed in a wooded area near this village in the province of Chalatenango, in El Salvador. Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Hans ter Laag and Joop Willemsen were killed in 1982 while on assignment for IKON, a Dutch public TV broadcaster. (AP Photo/P.W. Hamilton)

U.S. complaint filed against Salvadoran officer in 1982 killing of Dutch journalists

São Paulo, October 10, 2024—CPJ welcomes the civil complaint filed in a U.S. court against Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena, one of several Salvadoran military officers alleged to be connected to the March 17, 1982 ambush and killing of Dutch TV journalists Jan Kuiper, Koos Koster, Joop Willemsen, and Hans ter Laag in Chalatenango, El Salvador, during their coverage of…

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CPJ joins mission documenting human rights situation ahead of presidential elections in El Salvador

Ahead of the February 4 presidential elections in El Salvador, CPJ joined a coalition of press freedom organizations in a mission to document the rights situation of journalists to ensure they could carry out their work without fear. The coalition, which included Article 19 Mexico and Central America, Protection International Mesoamerica, Reporters Without Borders (RSF),…

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Salvadoran journalist Victor Barahona detained overnight

Guatemala City, July 28, 2023—El Salvador authorities must allow journalist Victor Barahona to work freely and without fear of rearrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. Authorities first arrested Barahona, who hosts a political affairs show on the local station Canal 29 in the northeastern city of Apopa, in June 2022 and held him…

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