The Carabobo state division of Venezuela’s National Journalism Guild (CNP) announced plans to protest the decision by the national telecom agency (CONATEL) to close Carabobo Stereo radio station last week.
“Next week we are going to take over the streets, peacefully, constitutionally, but aggressively. If we have to take extreme measures… like hunger strikes, we will,” said CNP-Carabobo secretary Ángel Perozo, quoted by El Regional del Zulia. Perozo says the organization doesn’t know the reason for the shutdown.
This is one of several recent attacks on the media by Venezuelan authorities. According to El Universal, the authorities recently shut down the radio station Turismo Stereo in the northeastern state of Nueva Esparta.
The weekly newspaper Notillanos is also facing new restrictions. It was shut down last year but managed to get around the restrictions by changing its name to “Notillanos Plus” and registering in another state. CNP president Silvia Alegrett said the mayor of San Fernando de Apure has re-blocked distribution of the newspaper.
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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.
