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Revolution and the press in Nicaragua: The press, the opposition and the Sandinistas — and how their disputes are reported abroad.

1981 was a trying year for Nicaragua Western newspapers gave the Sandinista revolution a bad press with reports of food shortages, infringements of human rights, attacks on minorities, gun-running, harassment of businessmen and, most serious of all, censorship of the media. The afternoon newspaper La Prensa was closed down on five occasions for contravening the vaguely worded press laws. The newspaper had become the major voice for all opposition groups, most notably the business community and the upper echelons of the church. The United States was not slow to defend La Prensa. The paper's problems won editorial space in the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and were commented on in a number of news stories on both sides of the Atlantic. La Prensa was regarded as more than just a symbol of press freedom: it was identified with the cause of political pluralism — with aspiring democracy fighting against incipient totalitarianism. If La Prensa is muzzled, North American readers were warned, then Nicaragua is lost to the Castroists. Of course it is not that simple. There has been a great deal of misinformation about La Prensa; some would say about almost any Nicaraguan story. There is even a conspiracy theory. But the charitable view would be that the errors of fact that have crept into the reporting of the La Prensa issue are attributable to the gut reaction of western journalists rallying to support their beleaguered colleagues. One commonly held impression is that the Nicaraguan press is somehow on a par with Western newspapers, instead of being small, unprofessional and ramshackle. American leader writers portray La Prensa as the most distinguished of a clutch of newspapers. So the Christian Science Monitor (March 81) referred to La Prensa as the country's leading independent newspaper' and the New York Times (3.8.81) wrote 'the main opposition newspaper, La Prensa, was recently closed down for two days, in what was clearly a warning "Pour les autres"'. A silly remark, for it was. clearly a warning to La Prensa, which happens to be the only opposition newspaper in Nicaragua. It has also been suggested that La Prensa is a quality newspaper. 'La Prensa, is the most conspicuous adornment of the regime, the badge of... its pluralist potential'