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Venezuelan Information Minister Andrés
Izarra declared
on the state
television channel VTV last week that "never has so much been done to
guarantee, promote, and drive freedom of expression than in the government of
President Hugo Chávez." Izarra needs to hire a fact-checker.
Contrary to Izarra's claim, the Chávez
administration's press freedom record is poor and is getting worse. CPJ has
documented the administration's systematic suppression of critical voices by shuttering
independent news outlets, harassing journalists, and enacting restrictive
legislation. Izarra applauded the "diversification" of Venezuela's media, but
the Chávez administration's media efforts have been focused on expanding the
government's own communications portfolio and stacking its personnel with loyalists.
Chávez himself makes frequent use of cadenas-- simultaneous nationwide radio
and television broadcasts that preempt regular programming on all stations--to
decry the private media's news coverage of the government and to single out
individual journalists for censure.
Are these practices that "guarantee,
promote, and drive freedom of expression?"
In his statement, Izarra highlighted an
increase in Venezuela's Internet penetration, from 3 percent in 1999 to 33
percent in 2010. This might be reason to cheer if the government hadn't just enacted legislation
that applies existing, repressive broadcast regulations to Internet content.
The measure was hurriedly passed in a lame-duck National Assembly session
before a new--and less compliant--legislature took office.
The
new law bans messages
that "incite or promote hatred," "foment citizens' anxiety or alter public
order," "disrespect authorities," "encourage assassination," or "constitute war
propaganda," according to Article 8. It curbs electronic media content
according to the time of the day and restricts news images showing violence.
With the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) now able to restrict online information
as it has done with broadcast media, Izarra's enthusiasm over Internet penetration
is disingenuous. Venezuelan journalists and press freedom advocates have
strongly opposed the law, CPJ found.
Chávez's information minister also seems
misinformed about the number of journalists killed in his country. He boasted Tuesday
that "Venezuela can say, unlike countries like Mexico [and] Colombia, that it
hasn't seen a single work-related journalist death."
CPJ's database of killed journalists shows
that while lethal violence is uncommon in Venezuela, three journalists have been killed for their work since 2002: Orel Sambrano, Jorge Aguirre, and Jorge Ibraín
Tortoza Cruz.
The motives behind the killings of three other journalists--Pierre Fould
Gerges,
Jesús Rafael
Flores Rojas,
and Mauro Marcano--are still unclear
and CPJ continues to investigate.
Izarra's claim is especially puzzling
given Venezuela's recent extradition from Colombia of Walid Makled, the man accused
of masterminding Sambrano's murder in retaliation for his investigative
reporting. In addition, CPJ hailed last May's
conviction in northern Carabobo state of the trigger man, Rafael Segundo Pérez,
a former police officer.
CPJ has closely documented the long-deteriorating
press freedom situation in Venezuela under Chávez. Far from "guaranteeing and
promoting" freedom of expression, Venezuelan authorities have worked relentlessly
to quash critical voices, using state regulatory bodies and modifying legal
structures to assist them in their efforts. Just check the facts.
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I'm glad to see articles like this one explaining the truth of what is happening in the land I used to love.
Nothing infuriates me more than reading articles from the first world praising Chavez and calling him a humanitarian. In the 50's and 60's Fidel Castro used "El Paredon" (Orchestrated By Che Guevara) to execute dissidents. Nowadays, this is not well perceived by the public, hence the authorities silently crush any opposition by incriminating them in fairy tales of "commitment of fraud", "money laundering", among other lies.
The ends have not changed, just the means. Venezuela deserved Chavez, for a while. But the lesson has been learned, the only problem is that it will take generations to undo the mess... It's time for a real revolution!