Caracas press crackdown goes from bad to worse

Jorge Ramos, anchor at Spanish-language U.S. television network Univision, talks to the media as he prepares to leave Venezuela at the Simon Bolivar international airport on February 26, 2019. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Jorge Ramos, anchor at Spanish-language U.S. television network Univision, talks to the media as he prepares to leave Venezuela at the Simon Bolivar international airport on February 26, 2019. (Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Venezuela’s political crisis continues to unfold, and the country’s press crackdown intensified over the past week. On Monday, a Univision news crew headed by reporter and anchor Jorge Ramos was detained for over two hours at the presidential palace in Caracas because Nicolás Maduro allegedly did not like the questions asked by Ramos. The crew’s cameras and cell phones were confiscated by security agents, and the crew was expelled from the country the next morning. On Saturday, a reporter was injured by pellets while covering attempts to bring aid into Venezuela over the Colombian border.

Meanwhile, citing “sensitivities over shouted questions,” the White House barred four journalists from covering a dinner between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi.

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Reporters take notes in Seoul, South Korea, on November 2, 2016. (Ed Jones/AFP)

CPJ’s Emergencies Response Team provides regularly updated safety notes and security advisories on ongoing and emerging threats to journalists. As phishing attacks against journalists become more sophisticated, check out the latest note on how you can protect yourself better with security keys. One takeaway is: Use a security key and a backup security key to protect your accounts, as they provide stronger protection than backup codes or backup phone numbers.

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