CIVICUS discusses the challenges facing El Salvador’s media under the government of populist authoritarian President Nayib Bukele with Laura Aguirre, co-founder and strategic director of the Salvadoran feminist digital media outlet Alharaca and development director of the SembraMedia media directory.
When it was founded in 2018, Alharaca was the country’s first digital media body with a gender-inclusive perspective, where women could express themselves freely. It prioritises collective work in collaboration with other media outlets and civil society organisations, developing innovative narrative projects that use illustration, comics and graphic design to engage a younger audience. Now it’s under pressure from Bukele, who claims to be the only authentic voice of the people, and who characterises independent journalists and media as mercenaries spreading ‘fake news’.
