Ortega media enrich his family, entrench his hold on Nicaragua
MANAGUA, (Reuters) - In early 2010, Nicaragua’s Canal 8, an independent television network, had a new owner.
Details of the deal – the identity of the buyer, the purchase price, an exact date for the transaction – remained secret. The seller died of cancer soon after.
But a familiar face soon took charge at Canal 8: the son of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. The leftist leader, who rose to prominence in the late Cold War with his Sandinista revolutionaries, had reclaimed the presidency three years before.
Canal 8 was long known for scrutinizing administrations both left and right. But new chief executive Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo, then 28 years old, quickly imposed orders for “good news” about his father’s government, according to several former employees of the station.
Many Nicaraguans quickly concluded the young Ortega’s appointment meant the first family or its allies were behind the acquisition. They were right.
According to previously undisclosed tax documents from earlier this year, Canal 8 is owned by Yadira Leets Marin, wife of Rafael Ortega Murillo, another son of the president. It isn’t clear whether Leets Marin was involved in the 2010 purchase, but the documents identify her as Canal 8’s majority owner now. She didn’t respond to requests from Reuters for comment.
The takeover of Canal 8 by the Ortega clan was the first step in a media strategy that over the past decade has saturated the Central American country’s airwaves, newsstands and smartphone screens with pro-government coverage.
The strategy was hinted at by Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo, in a public communique she issued as the president’s communications chief shortly after he began his second administration in 2007. The goal: not only ensure positive coverage, but also secure outright control of media properties by Ortega and allies.
In the years since, the president, his family and close associates have gained ownership or managerial control of at least a dozen TV channels, radio stations, and online news sites.
Some of the acquisitions, including the Canal 8 deal, were financed at least in part by funds provided by oil-rich Venezuela, said three current and former employees and people familiar with the acquisitions.
The Ortega family itself, according to 2020 tax and corporate registration documents reviewed by Reuters, controls ownership of Canal 8 and radio broadcaster Radio Ya.
Friends and close allies, according to the documents, own three additional television channels – Canal 4, Canal 13, and Canal 22 – all managed by children of the Ortegas. A fourth station, Canal 2, is also owned by an associate, according to people familiar with the channel, and the Ortegas manage its news operations.
Through state ownership, the Ortegas control TV broadcaster Canal 6, national network Radio Nicaragua, and online news portals like El 19 Digital. Associates of the first family own at least three other radio stations, all openly allied with the government.
Nicaraguans for years have speculated about the extent of the Ortegas’ control of their country’s media landscape. But the family has never officially disclosed what assets it owns or operates through allied investors.
Reuters interviewed current and former employees of outlets controlled by the family as well as dozens of government
officials, people at rival media, and Nicaraguan tax and legal experts. They provide the fullest portrayal yet of how Canal 8 came under the Ortegas’ control and how the family went on to use budget and tax laws to squeeze rival media and tighten their own grip on power.
The office of the president didn’t return calls or emails from Reuters seeking comment for this report. Murillo, who is now vice president as well as government spokeswoman, didn’t respond to separate requests for comment. Juan Carlos, Rafael and other Ortega relatives named in this story didn’t respond, either. Canal 8 and other media properties run by the family didn’t respond to queries.
The clan’s media empire has crowded out voices opposed to Ortega. “Canal 8 was a space where different, independent journalism was possible,” said Carlos Fernando Chamorro, a prominent journalist who left the station because of the acquisition. “It was a key move toward concentrating control.”
As the media empire shores up the president’s power, his government is steering large sums of state money into the properties controlled by the family and its allies.
Over the past two years, Nicaragua’s government bought advertising worth an estimated $ 59 million from the three biggest TV channels owned or controlled by the Ortega family, according to data compiled by Media Guru, a consultancy that tracks media spending. The government spent an estimated $230,000, less than 1% as much, at channels not affiliated with the Ortegas.
In another benefit for the Ortegas and their allies, at least two of their channels, unlike rival media, don’t appear to have paid taxes in recent years, according to previously unreported tax documents reviewed by Reuters.
Over the past decade, Canal 8 hasn’t paid more than $4 million in tax and interest it should have under Nicaraguan law, according to the documents, a finding supported by local tax experts who examined the materials for Reuters.
“They’ve created a system in which the money comes out of the national budget, runs through their holdings, and all stays in their pockets,” said Alfonso Malespin, a media specialist at the University of Commercial Sciences in Managua, Nicaragua’s capital.
The media effort is a family affair. Ortega has been aided by his wife, Murillo. Once a poet, she is widely considered the architect of the media strategy. Their children play key roles: In addition to Juan Carlos and Rafael, four other Ortega Murillo children run major media properties or hold stakes in them.