By Isabela Fraga
The National Union of Journalists (CNP in Spanish) said that media companies all over Venezuela have been pressured by the government to end programs critical of the State, retire the journalists that run them and adjust their editorial tone, reported the newspaper El Nacional.
In a statement published on its website on Thursday, Nov. 8, CNP Venezuela remembered the case of journalist and National Assembly Deputy Omar González, host of a news and opinion program on the radio station Actualidad, who was fired by his employers at Unión Radio under "pressure from high up in the government." According to Unión Radio, a Venezuelan government official threatened not to renew the station's broadcast license if González's show remained on the air.
"[CNP] repudiates and is saddened by the owners' decision to comply with the government's supposed pressures and coercion, designed to silence dissident voices in the media that address the problems facing our country," the statement read. The organization also said that these "dissident voices" go against the "communication hegemony of Venezuelan government, which does not seem satisfied with its absolute control over more than 300 media companies."
An August 2012 report from Human Rights Watch warned against the worsening state of free expression in Venezuela caused by the concentration of power in the country. According to the report, the possibilities of reprisals from the Venezuelan government has forced journalists to think twice before they release information and opinions critical of the government, reported the website Uol.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
