Journalism in exile from Costa Rica: Lucía Pineda Ubau

Lucía Pineda Ubau is the director of the news channel 100% Noticias and has been living in exile in Costa Rica since 2019. Her homeland, Nicaragua, has been under repressive rule since 2007, when President Daniel Ortega started systematically building an autocratic government, including pressuring political opponents who were increasingly criticizing him. 

Pineda Ubau was imprisoned following political unrest in Nicaragua in 2018, during which more than 300 people lost their lives. The government shut down 100% Noticias the same year as part of widespread repression against media professionals across the country.  

Following pressure from several international organizations, Pineda Ubau was released from prison as part of an amnesty for political prisoners. Since then, the 100% Noticias team has been working from exile. DW Akademie spoke with the journalist about her work, the challenges of exile media and the role Casa para el Periodismo Libre (House for Free Journalism) plays in the region. 

DW Akademie: What does your work from exile look like at the moment and how do you manage to keep your medium going? 

Lucía Pineda Ubau: We are working on our website from here and are also represented on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and other social networks. We fill the site with content that deals with Nicaragua. Despite many attempts to silence us and block our domain, we continue to work every day. Our focus is always on the people of Nicaragua. Our figures have proven our success as people want and need our information. 

What contribution can exile journalism make? 

Our exile is a product of the political persecution by the Ortega-Murillo regime [Ortega's wife, Rosario Murillo, has been co-president of the country since February 2025]. The aim is to silence and completely eradicate the independent press.  

Our most important contribution is to report the truth about the regime in Nicaragua. Because it spreads lies every day, there is corruption while Ortega and Murillo unlawfully expand their power. We report on this every day. There are still critical voices within the country, but they are forced to stay silent. Instead, they help by passing information to us. Our work helps reveal the truth in the face of lies about the regime and its media and also the defamation we face because of our work: independent journalism. 

Journalism in exile is the only independent voice that can still be heard in Nicaragua. We are physically outside, but our work is felt, read and consumed by people in the country. Our users are closely connected to us and that is exactly what bothers the regime. We didn't give up voluntarily, they shut down our channel, fired us, confiscated our material, took away our nationality, our property. They have tried to silence us, but we continue to work, despite many difficulties. 

How do you build a community from exile? How do you and your colleagues know which content is particularly popular?

We collect statistics and therefore know the topics that generate the most resonance in Nicaragua. For example, when someone falls out of favor with the government, when there are arrests of people who once belonged to the regime themselves. Or criticism of Rosario Murillo. Many people, at least those who can express themselves publicly, comment on our posts, others create fake profiles. There are also some who prefer not to participate openly on social media, but still follow our content. We see that in the statistics, too. 

What role does it play that part of your audience is also in exile?

Every person in Nicaragua has a relative in exile. In the past seven years, around one million people have left the country. And of course they are in contact with their families. The money that relatives send from exile supports many families, so people know the economic situation of their relatives very well. And of course information is also exchanged in this way. At the same time, the people who are still in the country are the eyes and ears for their families, they are the witnesses to the crude reality on the ground that the dictatorship would like to cover up. 

What influence do social media have on the dissemination of your information? 

In the face of extensive censorship, I think they have given us an enormous boost, which would not have happened without YouTube and Facebook. The dictatorship has not yet managed to ban the internet, even if they would like to. Even if they tried to set up their own social networks and ban Facebook, YouTube or TikTok, it would be absolute madness and would anger the population. 

What do journalists need to work successfully from exile? 

The biggest support for us is always our audience. Why is that? We don't ask people for money. Because we know that the situation in Nicaragua will remain like this for quite some time. Instead, we call on people to frequently use the platforms we are on and to play the posts several times, because they are monetized. This is how we ensure our sustainability and break censorship. Of course, we also receive support from organizations, especially from the USA. For a long time, the US was a big supporter of independent journalism, but I think Europe needs to take a stronger stand here in the future. 

Independent journalism is the only active voice in Nicaragua and we will continue to resist. International support is fundamentally important here. Everything becomes easier with the support of other countries, friends, organizations that care about press freedom and freedom of expression. Virtually the entire newsroom is in exile, and that alone is very expensive. Many of our families and friends support us for the country of Nicaragua, for freedom of the press, and we are proud that the people of Nicaragua recognize our work. This recognition also motivates us to continue. 

There are also organizations such as the Inter American Press Society and Google, or the Argentinian company MarkTube, which support us and have expanded our funding model. We have just launched a new appthat is practically impossible to censor. This fills us with great joy, because it is a glimmer of hope that we are creating innovation despite the difficulties, censorship and blockades. 

And one final question: You work together with the Casa para el Periodismo Libre in Costa Rica, which DW Akademie set up to protect journalists in exile. What can projects like this achieve?

The Casa para el Periodismo Libre is an important meeting place for journalists. The fact that this place exists is very important for us to see each other in person, to embrace each other, to share our concerns. It is a space that connects us. We knew that some of our colleagues were also here in the country, but we didn't have the opportunity to meet before Casa existed. The place brings together media professionals here in exile.  

For the future, I also recommend training courses that cover the monetization and sustainability of media and promote exchange between different organizations. It would certainly be useful for other media to put into practice what we have learned and experienced. 

At the Casa para el Periodismo Libre, journalists and media professionals in exile have access to training materials, reports and lectures, as well as wellness activities, mental health workshops, comprehensive security and support measures to continue their journalistic work since June 2024. Through a physical house and a virtual platform (periodismolibre.org), Casa para el Periodismo Libre serves as a meeting point for partner organizations that raise awareness about the situation of journalists who live in exile and/or are displaced. UNESCO, the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and the Latin American Network for Journalism in Exile (RELPEX) within the Inter American Press Association (SIP) are key partners of the project in the region.  

The Casa para el Periodismo Libre, which was opened by DW Akademie and its local partner the Institute for Freedom of the Press and Expression (IPLEX) in 2024, is a Space for Freedom project of DW Akademie and part of the Hannah Arendt Initiative, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.