Beacon of free media moves to Costa Rica in survival bid

El Faro has survived many pressures in its 25 years of reporting on El Salvador's bloody drug wars, crime and institutional corruption

- Luke Taylor

"We've been harassed. We've received death threats from drug cartels, requiring us to contract armed security guards. And we've had the police coming to our houses after we revealed their corruption scandals," said Óscar Martínez, the editor of the online investigative outlet. "Some of our journalists have been exiled, but we have managed to continue reporting from San Salvador." 

Now, the digital publication says it is leaving to escape a widening clampdown on press freedom by the president, Nayib Bukele. El Faro is moving its headquarters to San José, Costa Rica, to avoid what it says are "fabricated accusations" from the government intended to shut it down.

"This time we have no choice but to leave because it's not one group that is after us. It is the entire state," said Martínez.