President Arnoldo Alemán, who took office on January 10, promised during his campaign to put an end to the vestiges of Sandinista rule. Critics allege that he has tried to do so by withholding government advertising from Sandinista-controlled media outlets.

Soon after taking office, Alemán announced that, in order to save money, all state advertising would be channeled through five government agencies. Journalists with television station Channel 4 and the newspaper Barricada – run by the Sandinista party that ruled Nicaragua until 1988 – allege that the agencies are a pretext to justify a government plan to bankrupt them by withholding all advertising.

In 1994, then-president Violeta Chamorro signed the Chapultepec Declaration, affirming her government's commitment not to use state advertising to punish or reward media outlets for their coverage.

Another relic from the Sandinista era – and one that Alemán has not challenged – is the legal framework that guarantees freedom of expression. The 1987 constitution grants the right to "truthful information" to all Nicaraguans and defines journalism as a "social responsibility" which can be regulated by the state. Article 68 notes, "The media ... are at the service of national interests [and] the state will promote access to the people and their representatives to ensure they are not subject to foreign or monopolistic interests." These provisions offer a theoretical legal justification for the government to take punitive measures against journalists or media outlets that publish information deemed to be false, irresponsible, or contrary to the national interest.

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