Nicaraguan women journalists in exile victims of hate campaigns, study says

Nicaraguan women journalists living in exile are frequent targets of digital hate campaigns, which a new study attributes to followers of the government led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. The platform "La Sala, mujeres en la redacción" (The Room, Women in the Newsroom) released findings detailing how these online attacks are part of a broader strategy of repression.

The study, which analyzed nine media outlets founded and directed by women, highlights the use of cross-border "doxing", the public release of personal information, as a key tactic. To shield their teams, female directors often assume public visibility themselves, making them targets of online hate and gender-based violence that extends to their families and personal lives. "I have hidden all the staff and I am the one who faces it and receives the biggest attacks, the hate campaigns, the denationalization, confiscation. Whatever needs to be received, I have received it," one director stated in the report, titled "The Cost of Informing: Nicaraguan Women Journalists in Exile."

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I have hidden all the staff and I am the one who faces it and receives the biggest attacks, the hate campaigns, the denationalization, confiscation. Whatever needs to be received, I have received it.

At least 23 Nicaraguan journalists critical of the Sandinista government have been declared "traitors to the homeland" and stripped of their nationality and some possessions. Among those affected are prominent figures like Lucía Pineda of 100% Noticias, Jennifer Ortíz of Nicaragua Investiga, and Patricia Orozco of Agenda Propia, alongside communicators Cristiana Chamorro, Sofía Montenegro, and Silvia Nadide Gutiérrez.

The research also found that by May 2026, 100% of the media directors surveyed were in exile. They bear the burden of managing their outlets, fundraising, and fulfilling domestic caregiving roles while displaced. Despite these challenges, the study notes a significant improvement between 2022 and 2026, with five of the seven interviewed directors now having structured business plans. These media outlets are adapting by focusing on feminist journalism, podcasts, civic photojournalism, and multimedia narratives to reach audiences both inside Nicaragua and in the diaspora, effectively challenging the "narrative monopoly of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship."

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breaking the narrative monopoly of the dictatorship Ortega-Murillo.