At the top of the right column of the website of the Nicaraguan Judicial Branch, there is a new section called Electronic Board Consultation of Edicts, it is the platform where the edicts will be published, after the suspension of the printed edition of the only newspaper with national circulation in Nicaragua, LA PRENSA, due to retaliation by the Ortega dictatorship against this independent media outlet.
The measure of the judiciary is being criticized by the country’s lawyers, who indicate that few people have access to the page of the judiciary or frequent it due to the cost, access and coverage of the Internet service in Nicaragua.
Read also: Jurist criticizes the new role of the CSJ with publication of edicts and their effect on the media
One of the most worrying aspects is that in various laws it is stated that edicts or other judicial decisions must be published in a “newspaper with national circulation (which cannot be La Gaceta)”, so the website of the judiciary cannot be the correct answer to the problem.
The spokesman for the judiciary, Roberto Larios, told LA PRENSA this Saturday that, first, the judiciary is doing the right thing and, second, it does not understand the lawyers’ complaint. “The lawyer who does not have access to the Internet is not a good lawyer in these times,” he said.
Larios added: «The website is par excellence and above all a means of communication. That everyone knows. There is absolutely no law being violated, rather what is being done is lowering the cost of the administration of justice.
Internet access
According to Larios, access to the internet is already common in Nicaragua and the judges are already aware that when an edict needs to be published they will inform the users of justice how to do it: first going to a bank to pay the cost of the edict and then Attaching the voucher to a document, deliver it to the judge and the same judge, who will have online access to the system, will publish the edict and it will immediately be reflected on the judicial branch’s website.
Read also: CSJ will publish edicts on the digital platform, lawyers consider that legal reform is required
Larios explained that, for example, the publication of a board of directors summons had a “high cost” in a newspaper and now it will only be worth 100 cordobas.
Nicaraguan lawyers have explained that it is dangerous for the judiciary to have so many functions, including now publishing edicts, something that is designated by law for independent newspapers.
– .
