Mexico City, April 8, 2025—Guatemalan authorities must investigate and stop the coordinated online smear campaign against journalist Nelton Rivera and ensure that he and his colleagues at Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda can report freely and safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
Since February, social media accounts known in Guatemala as “net centers” have targeted Rivera, co-director of the news agency Km. 169, which publishes the independent news websites Prensa Comunitaria and Ruda. The accounts flooded social media platform X with false and defamatory posts accusing the journalist of accepting foreign funding, collaborating with organized crime, and serving as a mouthpiece for the government.
“Authorities must take immediate steps to end these coordinated attacks and protect Nelton Rivera from efforts to silence him through public defamation and legal threats,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “Criminalizing journalists through smear campaigns and anonymous networks is a serious threat to press freedom in Guatemala.”
The campaign escalated in March and April, with dozens of posts reviewed by CPJ spreading manipulated images, threats of prosecution, and calls for Rivera’s arrest. Several posts include images showing Rivera behind bars next to prominent jailed journalist José Rubén Zamora, suggesting he will be imprisoned next.
Net centers, which are troll farms that use anonymous or pseudonymous accounts to spread disinformation and attacks on journalists and others, have been linked to political actors and officials inside the public prosecutor’s office. CPJ and other organizations have documented their involvement in past campaigns that preceded criminal charges against journalists — including those from elPeriódico, the newspaper founded by Zamora.
CPJ reached out to the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.
CPJ Staff | Radio Free (2025-04-08T18:41:17+00:00) Guatemalan journalist Nelton Rivera targeted by smear, threat campaign. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2025/04/08/guatemalan-journalist-nelton-rivera-targeted-by-smear-threat-campaign/
Please log in to upload a file.
There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.