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August 30, 2025 – El Salvador –
Over the past five years, El Salvador has plummeted 61 places in the Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index, now ranking 112th out of 180 countries. Under President Nayib Bukele’s increasingly authoritarian administration, women journalists report mounting gender-based online abuse, much of it directed by pro‑Bukele accounts, even as independent media outlets are driven into exile.
A journalist speaking anonymously to Latin Times detailed relentless digital harassment throughout Bukele’s tenure—“non‑stop” misogynistic and sexually explicit attacks. These often included offensive remarks about their appearance, personal attacks on their families, and outright challenges to their professionalism. More alarmingly, in “extremely serious” cases, threats of rape have been circulated. She added that while she couldn’t prove government funding, many of the accounts engaging in such abuse were closely aligned with Bukele’s political circle, frequently disseminating governmental propaganda.
These gendered attacks are part of a broader pattern of repression: arrests of journalists investigating the administration, forcing media outlets to register as “foreign agents,” and imposing a steep 30% tax on foreign funding. Independent media such as El Faro have faced arrests, surveillance, and defamation campaigns, leading to self-censorship or exile.
In sum, female journalists in El Salvador are confronting a dual form of repression—authoritarian press restrictions compounded by targeted misogynistic harassment—undermining both their safety and freedom of expression in a climate of fear and digital violence.
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