Reporters Without Borders Urges to End Persecution in El Salvador
Representatives of the Association of Journalists of El Salvador, 2025. X/ @bavelarr
October 23, 2025 Hour: 2:20 pm
The country is nearing the total silencing of independent media.
On Thursday, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to immediately end judicial persecution against journalists, repeal repressive regulations such as the Foreign Agents Law, and guarantee press safety.
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“We also call on the international community to recognize the urgency of this crisis and increase pressure on El Salvador to respect press freedom,” said Artur Romeu, RSF’s director for Latin America.
“El Salvador is on the verge of definitively silencing all of its independent press… This repressive escalation marks a new stage in the country’s authoritarian drift, tightening the noose around journalism and fueling a new wave of media and journalist exile across Central America,” he added.
Bukele has accelerated threats, judicial persecution and financial strangulation measures against the press. Over the past six months, the president of the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES), Sergio Arauz, has documented 53 cases of forced exile among Salvadoran journalists.
The text reads, “Bukele’s growing authoritarianism has forced dozens of journalists and photojournalists into exile. What consequences could this have for democracy in El Salvador?”
“Journalists were suffocated — first by persecution and the threat of imprisonment, then by financial asphyxiation,” said Arauz recently, who has also had to leave El Salvador.
RSF stated that “judicial persecution, police surveillance, hate campaigns and cyber harassment form a repressive pattern that has intensified since May 2025.”
The organization warned that community radio stations have been particularly targeted by frequent raids, equipment seizures and police harassment. In exile, they face major difficulties continuing their work and have very limited resources, making them especially vulnerable to the Foreign Agents Law.
Promoted by Bukele, this law imposes a 30% tax on foreign aid and includes fines and criminal penalties. This has forced APES and other social organizations to cease their activities and even leave El Salvador.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
