By Samantha Badgen
Members of the Venezuelan news chain Cadena Capriles protested against the censorship of Laura Weffer’s investigative piece on the demonstrations that have taken place for over a month in the country. On Monday Mar. 17, a day after the article should have been published, Cadena Capriles' chief of investigations Tamoa Calzadilla resigned.
Weffer’s investigative piece, published by the National Press Worker’s Union (SNTP), chronicled the protests in Altamira, part of the municipality of Chacao, in Caracas. The article features interviews with the students and citizens protesting against insecurity and lack of goods across the country, as well as interviews with members of the National Guard, some of which sympathize with the people’s demands, but say that sometimes they get out of hand.
The article can also be read here.
According to Entorno Inteligente, Calzadilla presented her resignation to the medium where she worked for 15 years saying “I’m not the person they need, they need a political operator,” and explained that the reasons given for not publishing the article where political, whereas her arguments were journalistic.
After Calzadilla’s resignation became known, Cadena Capriles’ journalists assembled and began a protests in their offices, hanging up signs that read “Journalism First” on their desks. The phrase was borrowed from Nathalie Alvaray, who was vice president for media in Cadena Capriles until March 7, when she quit under pressure from executives linked to president Nicolás Maduro’s government, said Venezuela's National Association of Journalists.
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.
