"Literature on Central America’s media landscape over the last two decades documents significant obstacles to press freedom. Professional, independent journalism faces structural challenges rooted in the excessive concentration of political, economic, and social influence. From a political economy perspective, political and media elites share economic and even familial ties at the top end of a system characterized by high levels of social and economic inequality. This power structure results in a media largely at the service of elite interests and works against the media's roles of informing the public and exposing abuse of power and corruption. The concentration of power in focus nations has helped produce legal frameworks favorable to commercial interests and to the perpetuation of concentrated media ownership. Low readership and the distorting influence of public advertising help perpetuate these dynamics. These issues affect media coverage and facilitate control over public discourse by political and economic elites at the expense of the media performing a watchdog role. The legal frameworks vary from country to country. Some of them compromise the safety of journalists and limit democratic guarantees of freedom of expression. The literature review highlighted a lack of recent, comprehensive research on comparative regulation and legal frameworks in Central America, yet noted an ongoing struggle for press freedom amid political instability and violence targeting journalists. The Nicaraguan government imposes severe restrictions on journalism and has closed many news outlets. Journalists in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras are subjected to political pressure and targeted with violence and intimidation. These challenges are exacerbated by weak rule of law, abuse of political power, corruption, and the failure to enforce protection mechanisms, producing a complex media ecosystem for these Central American nations." (Executive summary, page 7)