Miami, May 1, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Venezuelan authorities to refrain from restricting access to the internet, social media services, and news outlets in the country during widespread protests and political unrest.
As Venezuela’s political crisis deepens, and the country closes its border with Colombia following violent clashes in late February, CPJ’s emergencies director, María Salazar Ferro traveled to the Colombian border city Cúcuta, with Luisa Isaza, head of protection for the Colombian press freedom group FLIP, and CPJ’s Andes correspondent, John Otis. There, they met with…
On March 30, 2019, police from Lagunillas, a municipality in Zulia state, beat and detained journalist Danilo Alberto Gil, a reporter for Venezuelan news outlet NotiRedVe–which operates on Twitter and Facebook–at around 9:30 a.m., while he was covering an opposition protest in the town of Ciudad Ojeda, according to posts on Twitter by NotiRedVe, local…
When Venezuelan military officials detained American freelancer Cody Weddle on March 11, the experience was both frightening and bizarre. Weddle said that agents put a hood over his head and pressed him to reveal sources he had never spoken with. They suggested the reporter was a member of the CIA and would be charged with…
One of the world’s biggest news stories on March 4 was the daring return to Venezuela of opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó, who faced possible arrest by the authoritarian regime of Nicolás Maduro. But most Venezuelans were unable to follow his homecoming.
Miami, March 6, 2019–Venezuelan authorities should immediately release a U.S. freelance journalist and a Venezuelan fixer who were detained after counterintelligence agents raided their homes this morning in Caracas, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.