Press reports such as this story in Nicaragua Hoy suggest that Channel 8's sale was purchased in part with funds from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which was originally proposed as an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Some media have reported that Channel 8 was bought for $10 million by the Albanisa business group, a private company financed by the Venezuelan government and controlled by Ortega, Diario las Americas notes.

Telenica's secretive change of hands has led some media in Nicaragua to warn of dangers to freedom of expression. According to El Nuevo Diario, the station's new owners are relatives of President Ortega. His family already controls several media in Nicaragua and has channeled state advertising to them. Last July, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported hat Ortega had launched a personal war against media critical of his government.

Until last weekend, Channel 8 had broadcast the programs "This Week" and "Tonight" by well-known journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro, a staunch critic of Ortega's government and the former editor of Barricada, which served as the Sandinista Front's newspaper in the 1980s. But Chamorro announced on Sunday that he would no longer be a part of the government-controlled TV station, the Nica Times reports in English.

"Chamorro, a leading critic of Ortega and son of martyred newspaper publisher Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, who was gunned down in 1978 for criticizing the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, said he refuses to be Ortega's accomplice in any way," Tim Rogers writes for the Nica Times.

According to Rogers, Chamorro gave his last broadcast of "This Week," his highly popular and respected weekly TV news program, explaining, “today I ratify my position in front of Nicaraguan society that I don't want to be a partner or collaborator with Mr. Ortega, either directly or indirectly, in any of his economic or political businesses that seek to help him whitewash his authoritarian image.”