El Salvador journalist, Efren Lemus, and staff member of digital newspaper, El Faro, is the beneficiary of the second edition of the RSF-UMH Elche, Safe Space for Freedom of the Press program, which is promoted by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH), through the university Vice Rectorate for Internationalization and Cooperation.

This program’s main objective is to defend the freedom of the press by supporting journalists who work in hostile environments, offering them respite by enabling them to temporarily leave the locations where risks have been recognized. To achieve this, the UMH and RSF provide a safe space from where the journalist can continue to practice his or her journalistic endeavors, in addition to said journalist contributing to the training of future journalists via workshops that are part of the Ryszard Kapuscinski Permanent Seminar of International Journalism, Human Rights, Migration, and Borders, which is meant for practicing journalists and students in the final years of the Bachelor’s in Journalism and the Dual Bachelor in Audiovisual Communication & Journalism. The program beneficiary then joins the Department of Social and Human Sciences as an honorary collaborating professor from September 15 to December 15, 2024. This department stay is complemented by meetings with journalism professors and professionals. These meetings are made possible thanks to collaboration with the Association of Journalists of the Province of Alicante. These meetings aim to highlight the complexity of being a journalist nowadays in Central America, and especially in El Salvador, a country that has fallen to number 133 according to annual Freedom of the Press Ranking. This ranking is produced by RSF and was presented in May 2024 to coincide with World Press Freedom Day.

Efren Lemus is a Salvadoran journalist who currently works for the prestigious digital newspaper, El Faro. There, he specializes in first-rate investigative journalism on government corruption, gang violence, and severe human rights violations committed by state agents. He is a graduate of journalism from the University of El Salvador (UES), and Lemus has participated in important training programs in the United States, Mexico, and Colombia, among other countries. He has also presented courses on investigative journalism and source protection strategies for journalists from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador at Central American University (UCA).

The beneficiaries of this program’s first edition were journalists, Andrea Aldana (Colombia) and Loraine Morales (Cuba). Earlier this month (June 2024), this pioneering program was awarded a special mention from the fifth Óscar Romero Ibero-American Prize of Education on Human Rights, which is given by the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI).