Venezuelan journalist Laure Nicotra criticized the arbitrary cancellation of the news program that she had hosted for five years on TV station Canal 7 in the state of Barinas in southeast Venezuela, reported the National Association of Journalists of Caracas.
The host of the program "Ésta Mañana" (This Morning) was not allowed to enter the offices of the station Thursday, March 7. According to Noticiero Digital (Digital News), the television channel was sold to front men for President Hugo Chávez's family, making the station one more media outlet for official propaganda.
"They kicked me out with no prior warning, very abruptly. This is a clear violation of freedom of expression, of free thinking, and of my rights as a woman in the workforce," the journalist said, according to the news site La Prensa de Barinas. On her program, Nicotra reported on about political happenings at regional and national levels.
For the General Secretary of the National Association of Journalists of Barinas, Jesús Fernando González Cazorla, the measures taken by the new station owners are another attack on freedom of expression in the state, which occupies second place regarding cases of censorship in the country, according to a study by the Press and Society Institute.
