The Salvadoran Journalists Association (APES) has raised concerns of alleged watchlists and threats of arrest targeting journalists and human rights defenders.

The document calls on the Salvadoran government to “guarantee the physical integrity and freedom of all journalists and immediately cease any form of persecution, surveillance, or intimidation.”

Read the full statement in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

Local journalists and human rights organizations have raised concerns that Bukele, who described himself as the “world’s coolest dictator,” has repeatedly renewed the state of emergency in a bid to systemically silence dissent and dismantle press freedom through the harassment, intimidation, surveillance of journalists. The Salvadoran Journalists Association (APES) documented 311 attacks, including harassment, doxxing, threats, and criminalization, against journalists in 2023; in the first nine months of 2024, it recorded 165 more attacks, according to APES documentation reviewed by CPJ.

Bukele has defended his record: “Ask the people. It will be incredibly rare to find a negative opinion in the population,” he told Time magazine. 

CPJ joined regional press freedom group Inter American Press Association (IAPA) on a fact-finding mission to the country in September to learn about the deteriorating state of independent journalism. This is what it found:  

Journalists are subjected to lawsuits and audits

Although criminal prosecution of El Salvadoran journalists is rare compared to neighboring countries Nicaragua and Guatemala, journalists told CPJ that the fear of lawsuits has had a chilling effect on their work.

One lawsuit in particular shocked the local press: in 2023, businessman Jakov Fauster sued El Diario de Hoy and one of its journalists over republished information from the Mexican magazine Proceso. After initially securing a right of reply, Fauster pursued further legal action, demanding a public apology and $10 million in damages. A court ordered the newspaper to publish a second apology and remove the article, but dismissed Fauster’s $10 million claim.

El Faro, known for its investigative reporting, has also faced repeated threats of criminal investigations. Bukele accused the newspaper of money laundering and claimed that authorities were investigating it in 2020, though no formal charges have been filed, according to El Faro news director Óscar Martínez.

The Ministry of Finance has also subjected El Faro, La Prensa Gráfica, and other outlets, to costly audits in what editors and press freedom advocates describe as a bid to undermine their economic sustainability and raise doubts over their administration. Due to fears of being shut down, El Faro moved its administrative operations to Costa Rica, though its newsroom remains in El Salvador.

At least one journalists was arrested and others’ families have been targeted

While in the country, CPJ and IAPA met with El Salvador’s Presidential Commissioner for Human Rights and Freedom of Speech, Andrés Guzmán Caballero. When the two groups raised concerns about the treatment of the press under the state of emergency, Guzmán said the government respected press freedom in the country, claiming that no journalists have been killed or imprisoned since the implementation of the orders.

However, journalist Víctor Barahona’s case tells a different story. Barahona was detained for more than 11 months in 2022 under the state of emergency on accusations that he collaborated with gangs; APES said he was tortured during his time in custody, which CPJ has not independently verified. Upon his May 19, 2023, release, authorities provided no formal documentation nor notified his family. When asked about the case, Guzmán said, “There is an investigation that suggests he is part of a criminal structure. The justice system will not overlook these acts, even if he claims to be a journalist.”

Journalists’ families have also been targeted in connection with their work. Environmental journalist Carolina Amaya’s father, Benjamín Amaya, was arrested on February 28, 2023, under the state of emergency, and charged with illicit association and limiting personal freedom. Ilicit association is the charge typically used for people that are part of gangs, the penalty goes to up 5 years and limiting personal freedom has a prison term for up to 8 years. Although her father was released in December under substitute measures, similar to parole, Amaya reported that her Mala Yerba media outlet faced threats before and after his arrest. She believed the harassment was in retaliation for an investigation her outlet published about contamination in El Salvador’s eastern Lake Coatepeque, in which the president’s mother-in-law was allegedly implicated.

Journalists are surveilled 

A joint 2022 report from Citizen Lab and Amnesty International found that Pegasus spyware infected the phones of 35 journalists and civil society members in El Salvador between July 2020 and November 2021. El Faro, whose journalists were among the most frequently targeted, filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court against NSO Group, the Israeli company that makes Pegasus. The court has not yet decided if it is has jurisdiction in the case. 

Journalists expressed fear of being constantly monitored, believing their phones were being surveilled, and their physical whereabouts tracked. Some journalists at the Revista Factum magazine believe they have been turned down for apartment leases “just because they work for the magazine,” Revista Factum editor César Castro Fagoaga told CPJ and IAPA. 

The government is restricting access to information.

Journalists and human rights organizations spoke about two key turning points in terms of the country’s restrictions on information. The first was the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the Bukele government, citing national security, classified all data related to the crisis, including figures on the infection rate and information on government spending to halt the virus. The second was the 2022 state of emergency, which suspended constitutional rights and eliminated legal oversight of public fund use, state contracts, and the right to access public information. These rights have never been restored, and journalists say that the lack of transparency makes their work much more difficult.

“Not even lower-level officials are willing to speak with the media, so we have to rely on information from ordinary citizens,” said Oscar Orellana, executive director of Asociación de Radiodifusión Participativa de El Salvador (ARPAS), the country’s largest network of community radios.

Journalists and their work are stigmatized at the highest levels

El Salvadoran journalists and media outlets face relentless attacks on social media, including doxxing and public threats from Bukele, who said on X that El Faro was a “pamphlet” that published fake news, as well as from public officials.

“When the president labels us as the enemy, it reinforces that narrative for everyone—police, public officials, even local authorities,” El Faro news director Óscar Martínez told CPJ and IAPA. Bukele frequently accuses independent media of using false sources and misleading the public, and other officials have accused journalists of being members of gangs, without providing evidence.

Female journalists are particularly vulnerable, facing severe harassment, including threats of death and sexual violence from Bukele’s supporters. Of the 165 attacks recorded by APES as of August 31, 2024, 53 were against female journalists. 

“Women journalists no longer want to be spokespersons for their outlets and have stopped promoting their work on platforms like X out of fear of being attacked,” said Claudia Ramírez, news director at La Prensa Gráfica.

Self-censorship is growing among the press

Journalists described a growing culture of silence taking hold in El Salvador. Many are choosing to withhold their bylines or even leave the profession entirely, fearing reprisal against them or their families. “It’s a culture of silence. Many people, whether journalists or not, are afraid to speak out,” said Orellana. According to APES, at least four journalists have fled the country due to repeated harassment.

Journalists who report on crime fear that they’ll be targeted by the government, even after the partial repeal of a law in 2023 imposing prison time for disseminating messages linked to criminal groups. They told CPJ that they self-censor by not mentioning gangs in their coverage due to ongoing legal restrictions, which include the state of emergency’s temporary suspension of constitutional rights and civil liberties.

“Bukele’s approach is one of tight social control,” said César Castro Fagoaga of the investigative news site Revista Factum. “The caution now felt by the public has spread to the press, leading to a restrained environment for journalism.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Dánae Vílchez.

When Rupert Wyatt’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes came out in the summer of 2011, I was living in my hometown of Lake Placid, New York. I had an apartment near Saint Agnes Church, and, one evening, walked down the hill to the Palace Theater, a wonderful cinema featuring an organ from the silent-film era.

Reggie Clark, the longtime owner, was still alive then, and likely wearing a red blazer and accepting tickets in the lobby, as was his custom. He was something of a local icon. According to a New York Times piece, Clark started working at the Palace as a teenager during World War II and purchased the theater in 1961.

It was a lonely period in my life. I went to the film by myself and remembering walking home, impressed that such an anti-speciesist film had been made, with such a budget, and such stars. Unlike, say, Chicken Run, it wasn’t aimed specifically at children. I wanted to talk to someone about it, but didn’t know who that could be.

There was an activist group operating out of the Albany area, loosely affiliated with a vegan bakery in Troy called Xs to Os, that called themselves Adirondack Animal Rights. I was in touch with them on social media, but I’d only driven to meet and protest with the group on a couple of occasions.

Ultimately, when I got back to my apartment, I shot an e-mail to Steven Best, a professor at the University of Texas, El Paso, and one of my intellectual idols at the time. His academic work primarily provides justification for underground groups like the Animal Liberation Front.

He’d written an appreciative post for his blog about the original film series, but, sadly, he emailed back to say he hadn’t seen Wyatt’s reboot yet. That’s how things are in small towns for those with niche interests or counter-cultural identities. There aren’t always people around who share your passions.

Well, I recently decided to rewatch Rise of the Planet of the Apes and share my passion for the movie here. For what it’s worth, I’ve only seen a couple films from the original series and it’s been a long time. I don’t believe I’ve seen Tim Burton’s much-criticized remake since it was in theaters.

I love the other entries in the new trilogy which Rise of the Planet of the Apes began, but, in my view, the species politics are less clear. As a result, I prefer Wyatt’s contribution to the two movies directed by Matt Reaves, which, I guess puts me in a critical minority.

Using motion-capture technology, the 2011 film stars Andy Serkis as Caesar, a genetically-enhanced chimpanzee, who leads a primate rebellion. Serkis had already achieved fame for his digital performance as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings franchise, but I’d argue this is a more impressive achievement, given it was a leading role.

James Franco is the human face of the movie, playing Will Rodman, a pharmaceutical chemist researching Alzheimer’s treatments on chimpanzees, including Caesar’s mother. While his star has since faded, the late 2000s and early 2010s likely represented the height of Franco’s power in Hollywood.

Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton and David Oyelowo round out the cast. Pinto plays a primatologist who begins a romantic relationship with Rodman. Lithgow performs as Rodman’s father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. Brian Cox and Tom Felton show up as abusive workers at a primate shelter, while Oyelowo plays Rodman’s boss.

In the film, Caesar’s mother and the other the test subjects are put down after seeming to exhibit violent tendencies. Unwilling to kill an infant chimpanzee, Rodman secretly brings Caesar home to live with him. The married screenwriting duo of Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa said this was inspired by stories they read about in the news.

“We were looking for a gig and Rick had cut out these articles that fascinated him about chimps being raised as humans in homes,” Silver told the Huffington Post. “And what invariably happens in all these instances is that the chimp grows into an aggressive, powerful animal and things go awry.”

Of course, in the movie, Caesar attacks a neighbor, which results in animal control sending him to a primate shelter. “Then the chimp is always put, like Nim, in some sort of facility and traumatized by that,” Silver said. “And they’re extremely smart sentient beings without even having any extra smarts put in them, like Caesar.”

Jaffa saw the potential for a fascinating thriller in these articles, but, eventually, it occurred to him, they could serve as the inspiration for a reboot of the Planet of the Apes series. In early drafts of the couple’s screenplay, Caesar had a darker character arc, which they compared to Michael Corleone in The Godfather.

Caesar was initially motivated by revenge, which was less satisfying. The couple wanted a more inspirational figure. “It was always structurally a Moses story, but it became more of a Moses story once his character transformed in development to where he ended up,” Jaffa said in the same interview. “In one draft we changed Michael Corleone to Che Guevara.”

I haven’t been able to find a definitive answer, but some sources online suggest the producers considered using real performing apes in the film. If true, I can’t imagine any behind-the-scenes choice that would have run more contrary to a movie’s message. As it was, the film used performing horses, but thankfully this wasn’t the route chosen for the primates.

The computer-generated images — which were created by Weta Digital, the company that did effects for The Lord of the Rings, among others — were revolutionary. Of course, the technology has only improved since then. But Rise of the Planet of the Apes was the film, in my view, which showed one could abstain from using animal actors without sacrificing realism.

The movie garnered positive reviews from critics. Roger Ebert was disappointingly ambivalent, though he conceded Caesar was a “wonderfully executed character.” Animal protection groups, ranging from the Humane Society of the United States to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, were rapturous in their acclaim.

Some years back, I wrote an article for Splice Today naming Rise of the Planet of the Apes as my favorite narrative film with animal-rights themes. After it, I listed The Plague Dogs, White God, Noah and Chicken Run. I might quibble with the ordering today, but in the broad strokes, I stand behind what I said.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an excellent summer blockbuster with a surprisingly anti-speciesist message. I hope future big productions make its animal politics look conservative in comparison, but that day hasn’t come yet.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jon Hochschartner.

And yet, once back from the hike, the low tides churning up as the tide shifts toward the rising tide, the news is never ending. The insanity of the West, the insanity of the lies, more lies and black magic lies of the US media, as well as the zombies walking the streets and even hitting the king tide Devil’s Churn, hoping 2023 will be brought in with booze, football, firecrackers. That the world will be a better world.

I challenge the reader to tell me — my 18th birthday, 1975, being the starting point — when a new year from 1975 to 2022 was a better year. Be careful to look at history, the world’s history, all the completely rotten politicians, the rotting policies, the complete slide of the American worker, and the incredible lightness of better dying with chemistry?

After adjusting for inflation, however, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today.

Those king tides are a time to reflect upon what the average ocean level will be in 10, 20 or 30 years for now. Call it ocean expansion or ocean rise, but it is happening, even as we watch the celebrity worthless ones gain more and more money and media power; as the space race continues at break-neck speed for no results, i.e. better crops, better cities, better health care, better durable goods, better politics, better education, better mind care, better food and farming, better resilience, better global cooperation to increase the quality of life for all, as well as keeping ecosystems hardy, strong and vibrant.

Even if world manages to limit global warming to 2°C — the target number for current climate negotiations — sea levels may still rise at least 6 meters (20 feet) above their current heights, radically reshaping the world’s coastline and affecting millions in the process.

That finding comes from a new paper published on Thursday in Science that shows how high sea levels rose the last time carbon dioxide levels were this high.

Yet, oh yet, the news in a slice of today’s minute covers the most obscene stories:

Why restaurant chains are investing in robots and what it means for workers

So, no outcry, no massive movement by humanoids, USA Homo COnsumopethicus, protesting this transhumanism, robotizing of EVERYTHING, because it starts with self-driving cars, then self-flipping burgers, then, at-home-tele = med/ed/work/shopping/family a la Zoom. More and more shifting baselines, and of course, Holly-Dirt promulgates this, and there is NO debate on resetting BACKWARDS to a time of sidewalks, clinics in every neighborhood, more bricks and mortars, more eyes and porches on the street, complete and dynamic and overarching public transportation, more parks, more more more of the good old days of more durable goods and back to lifetime analysis, cradle to cradle thinking.

2022 marked the end of cheap mortgages and now the housing market has turned icy cold

The amount of homelessness, the number of evictions, the number of foreclosures, the number of “management” agencies, the regressive taxation with property/homes as the cash cow for local government, the entire stupidity of tiny homes and family of four enjoying the closet life. Amazing, Robin Leech on steroids as we know of the dirty stains of millionaires and billionaires and their fifth or sixth homes and villas.

James Cameron Cut out 10 Minutes of Avatar 2 Gun Violence Because It Made His Stomach Sick: ‘I Don’t Want to Fetishize Guns’ Anymore\

So, this guy, Terminator, Rambo, etc, now has a change of heart? These people are the height of La-La-Land, with their billions in gold and property. He’s part of the big problem, not the part of the solution.

CEOs from Elon Musk to Jamie Dimon fought to bring workers back to the office in 2022. Here’s who won—and who lost—the great return-to-office war

So, the above ones are welfare and bailout and slave labor queens. Government bailouts and government assistance. Instead of the LARGER issues tied to labor, work, the top down sociopathy of bosses telling us, the world, how things must work, again, these people get countless minutes of copy every minute of every day.

It is insanity what captures the “news” aggregators, the mainstream un-News, and what propaganda is fed 24/7/nanosecond daily: Lies, complete reversal of the truth, sick stories, propaganda, up is down, lies are truth.

So, mainstream news never tells us that Ukraine is losing. Amazing how weird the stories get about Putin, this evil guy, and worse, the entire people of Russia should be wiped from the earth. Very very weird. Cold, death, blizzards, etc. Consuming any of this stuff will turn a steel stomach into a hissing haggis. From three screenshots of endless worthless Bing News aggregation.

Get on with arming yourself against this perversion. Truth:

“Russia Now Says Ukraine Losing 2 Battalions per Day in Donbass, 2nd Ukrainian Drone Attack on Engels”

Let the Patriot Games Begin: by Pepe Escobar

“Will Ukraine ever have enough Fire Power? Col Doug Macgregor”

“Battlefield Bakhmut: Why Russia & Ukraine are Fighting Over this City”

“Russian-Chinese Ties vs. US Aggression w/ Carl Zha & Mark Sleboda”

“LIVE: Ukraine’s LAST STAND w/ Scott Ritter and Dan Kovalik!”

“MEP Clare Daly DESTROYS the EU for Disastrous War in Ukraine”

Screw it. So so much work to read, research, and/or watch/listen to “alternative” sources to get through the manure of the mainstream-legacy-corporate-CIA approved news.

Back to the King TIdes. Nature. Eighty mile an hour winds, and bloody gulls and crows managing to fly. The foam, the rollers, the debris, as in trees being pushed around like wine corks.

There is a moment for us all to pause, absorb, being one with nature, whatever that might be.

Amazing nature, and the amazing stupidity of Apes with Nuke Missiles, us, and which war will be fought with sticks and stones as Einstein predicted?

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Paul Haeder.