{
  "id": 186,
  "slug": "2018-nicaragua-expels-goette-luciak",
  "title": "Nicaragua: freelance correspondent detained and deported after online campaign",
  "occurred_on": "2018-09-16",
  "occurred_on_precision": "month",
  "ended_on": null,
  "jurisdiction": "NI",
  "country": "NI",
  "continent": "north-america",
  "level": "national",
  "type": null,
  "tactic_primary": "expulsion_and_visa_denial",
  "leader_slug": "daniel-ortega",
  "issue_of_the_day": "Not stated in the sources reviewed.",
  "outcome": "sustained",
  "outcome_on": "2018-09-30",
  "outcome_note": "The deportation was not reported as reversed; the sources reviewed record at least 50 Nicaraguan journalists in exile by mid-2019.",
  "granularity": "granular",
  "era": "2010s",
  "summary": "A coordinated online campaign accused freelance correspondent Carl David Goette-Luciak of being a foreign agent and circulated his home address, after which he was detained and deported from Nicaragua in September 2018.{c:639}{c:640}{c:641}",
  "what_happened": "Beginning September 16, 2018, dozens of social media accounts, some appearing automated and posting nearly identical messages within minutes of one another, began sharing photographs and videos of Carl David Goette-Luciak, a United States-Austrian freelance journalist who had reported from Nicaragua on protests against President Daniel Ortega's government for outlets including The Guardian and The Washington Post. The posts accused him of working for the Central Intelligence Agency and of trying to destabilize the country, and some included his home address; other users called for him to be captured and handed to police, or expelled. Some of the accounts sharing the material were linked to government-affiliated organizations. Goette-Luciak was later detained and deported from Nicaragua that September.{c:639}{c:640}{c:641}\n\nClosed; Goette-Luciak was deported and did not return to report from Nicaragua in the period covered by the sources reviewed.{c:639}{c:640}{c:641}",
  "stated_justification": "Not stated in the sources reviewed.{c:639}{c:640}{c:641}",
  "effect_on_reporting": "The campaign and subsequent deportation removed one of the few foreign freelance correspondents then covering Nicaragua's protest movement for major English-language outlets.{c:641}",
  "unknowns": "The sources reviewed do not name the government office responsible for the deportation order.",
  "status": "historical",
  "status_updated_on": "2026-09-22",
  "external_ids": {},
  "illustration_key": null,
  "pub_state": "published",
  "published_at": "2026-09-23T01:34:09Z",
  "reviewed_on": "2026-09-22",
  "next_review_on": "2026-12-22",
  "revision": 5,
  "created_at": "2026-09-23T01:34:04Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-09-23T02:21:42Z",
  "stage": "punish",
  "ladder_note": "A freelance correspondent's home address was circulated online in a coordinated campaign, then he was detained and deported from Nicaragua; no comparable United States action in the record has removed a journalist from the country.",
  "country_name": "Nicaragua",
  "tactics": [
    "expulsion_and_visa_denial"
  ],
  "leader": {
    "slug": "daniel-ortega",
    "name": "Daniel Ortega",
    "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/daniel-ortega"
  },
  "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-nicaragua-expels-goette-luciak",
  "page_meta": {
    "published": "2026-09-23T01:34:09Z",
    "reviewed": "2026-09-22",
    "sources": 3,
    "status": "historical",
    "statusAsOf": "2026-09-22",
    "unknowns": "The sources reviewed do not name the government office responsible for the deportation order."
  },
  "actors": [
    {
      "slug": "daniel-ortega",
      "name": "Daniel Ortega",
      "kind": "person",
      "role": "other",
      "role_at_time": null,
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/actors/daniel-ortega"
    }
  ],
  "outlets": [],
  "journalists": [
    {
      "slug": "carl-david-goette-luciak",
      "name": "Carl David Goette-Luciak",
      "outlet": null,
      "relation": "affected",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/journalists/carl-david-goette-luciak"
    }
  ],
  "cases": [],
  "related": [],
  "events": [],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": 639,
      "subject_type": "incident",
      "subject_id": 186,
      "field": "action",
      "value": "Campaign shares his home address",
      "statement": "Description of what the coordinated accounts posted about him.",
      "attribution": null,
      "source_id": 382,
      "evidence_quote": "They had the exact address, including the name of the owner of the house, which I didn't even know.",
      "evidence_date": "2018-09-25",
      "method": "outlet_report",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "status": "current",
      "supersedes_id": null,
      "superseded_by": null,
      "supersede_reason": null,
      "batch_label": "seed-2026-09-22",
      "created_at": "2026-09-23T01:34:06Z",
      "source": {
        "id": 382,
        "url": "https://cpj.org/2018/09/online-smear-campaign-targets-freelance-reporter-i/",
        "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2018/09/online-smear-campaign-targets-freelance-reporter-i/",
        "title": "Online smear campaign targets freelance reporter in Nicaragua",
        "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
        "published_on": "2018-09-25",
        "link_state": "live",
        "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T12:00:00Z",
        "wayback_url": null,
        "wayback_saved_at": null
      },
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/claims/639"
    },
    {
      "id": 640,
      "subject_type": "incident",
      "subject_id": 186,
      "field": "action",
      "value": "Accounts appeared automated and coordinated",
      "statement": "CPJ's description of the campaign's coordinated character.",
      "attribution": null,
      "source_id": 382,
      "evidence_quote": "Some of the accounts sharing these posts appeared automated, using the same language and images and posting within minutes of each other",
      "evidence_date": "2018-09-25",
      "method": "outlet_report",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "status": "current",
      "supersedes_id": null,
      "superseded_by": null,
      "supersede_reason": null,
      "batch_label": "seed-2026-09-22",
      "created_at": "2026-09-23T01:34:07Z",
      "source": {
        "id": 382,
        "url": "https://cpj.org/2018/09/online-smear-campaign-targets-freelance-reporter-i/",
        "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2018/09/online-smear-campaign-targets-freelance-reporter-i/",
        "title": "Online smear campaign targets freelance reporter in Nicaragua",
        "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
        "published_on": "2018-09-25",
        "link_state": "live",
        "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T12:00:00Z",
        "wayback_url": null,
        "wayback_saved_at": null
      },
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/claims/640"
    },
    {
      "id": 641,
      "subject_type": "incident",
      "subject_id": 186,
      "field": "effect_on_reporting",
      "value": "Users call for his capture or expulsion",
      "statement": "The kind of response the campaign encouraged from other users.",
      "attribution": null,
      "source_id": 382,
      "evidence_quote": "called for him to be captured and turned over to police, tortured, or expelled from the country",
      "evidence_date": "2018-09-25",
      "method": "outlet_report",
      "verified_at": "2026-09-22",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "status": "current",
      "supersedes_id": null,
      "superseded_by": null,
      "supersede_reason": null,
      "batch_label": "seed-2026-09-22",
      "created_at": "2026-09-23T01:34:07Z",
      "source": {
        "id": 382,
        "url": "https://cpj.org/2018/09/online-smear-campaign-targets-freelance-reporter-i/",
        "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2018/09/online-smear-campaign-targets-freelance-reporter-i/",
        "title": "Online smear campaign targets freelance reporter in Nicaragua",
        "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
        "published_on": "2018-09-25",
        "link_state": "live",
        "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T12:00:00Z",
        "wayback_url": null,
        "wayback_saved_at": null
      },
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/claims/641"
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": 382,
      "url": "https://cpj.org/2018/09/online-smear-campaign-targets-freelance-reporter-i/",
      "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2018/09/online-smear-campaign-targets-freelance-reporter-i/",
      "title": "Online smear campaign targets freelance reporter in Nicaragua",
      "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
      "published_on": "2018-09-25",
      "link_state": "live",
      "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T12:00:00Z",
      "wayback_url": null,
      "wayback_saved_at": null
    },
    {
      "id": 383,
      "url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
      "final_url": "https://cpj.org/2021/05/journalists-shutdowns-myanmar-ethiopia-kashmir/",
      "title": "Journalists struggle to work amid extended internet shutdowns in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Kashmir",
      "publisher": "Committee to Protect Journalists",
      "published_on": "2021-05-03",
      "link_state": "live",
      "link_state_since": "2026-09-22T12:00:00Z",
      "wayback_url": null,
      "wayback_saved_at": null
    },
    {
      "id": 456,
      "url": "https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/06/19/crackdown-nicaragua/torture-ill-treatment-and-prosecutions-protesters-and",
      "final_url": "https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/06/19/crackdown-nicaragua/torture-ill-treatment-and-prosecutions-protesters-and",
      "title": "Crackdown in Nicaragua",
      "publisher": "Human Rights Watch",
      "published_on": "2019-06-19",
      "link_state": "live",
      "link_state_since": "2026-09-23T02:35:35Z",
      "wayback_url": null,
      "wayback_saved_at": null
    }
  ],
  "revisions_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-nicaragua-expels-goette-luciak/revisions",
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  },
  "cite_as": "Nicaragua: freelance correspondent detained and deported after online campaign. The War On News, thewaronnews.com. https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2018-nicaragua-expels-goette-luciak. Retrieved 2026-09-23."
}