In the annual Amnesty International 2012 report presented in London on Wednesday, May 23, the group said that there "were new restrictions" to freedom of expression in Venezuela, with journalists facing fines and myriad accusations, reported the newspaper El Universal and the news agency EFE.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has called on the Venezuelan government to end its defamation campaign against the newspaper Notitarde, IAPA announced on its website on Friday, May 18. According to IAPA, the campaign is a "a malicious discrediting maneuver" initiated by federal and state legislators of the ruling party.
Venezuelan writer Neptali Segovia, who creates crossword puzzles for the newspaper Últimas Noticias, was accused of sending a hidden message inciting the killing of Adán Chávez, President Hugo Chávez's brother, reported the BBC.
On Monday, April 30, during unrest at the La Planta prison, in Caracas, Venezuela, the country's minister of prison services, Iris Varela, told the state-run TV channel Venezuelana Televisión (VTV) that the private TV broadcaster Globovisión was spreading "malicious information" and an order was issued to seize the station's equipment and interrupt the channel's transmission, reported the National Association of Journalists (CNP in Spanish).
On Monday April 23, as its mid-year meeting came to a close, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) concluded that the main difficulties confronting the press in the Americas are “crimes against journalists, and arbitrary and intolerant governments.”
The National Commission of Telecommunications (Conatel) closed four radio stations and confiscated their transmission equipment in the state of Monagas, Venezuela, on Friday, March 30, reported the NGO Espacio Público.
Brazilian journalists and international journalism organizations are dismayed that Brazil, along with Cuba, Venezuela, India and Pakistan, decided to block a U.N. plan that would have promoted journalists' safety.
On Tuesday, March 27, in a public hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, journalist organizations called 2011 the worst year for the Venezuelan press because of the rise in attacks against reporters and news media, reported the AFP.
Venezuelan newspaper employees from La Prensa de Barinas must provide the Bolivarian Intelligence Service information related to various investigations initiated after corruption allegations were published in the newspaper, reported El Universal on Wednesday, March 28.
Various Venezuelan press associations issued statements criticizing the court decision that ordered the media to publish a technical report supplying evidence for previous stories published about water contamination in the central region of the country.
Just seven months from the upcoming presidential elections in Venezuela, attacks against the press have intensified, according to Reporters Without Borders.
On Thursday, March, 15, a live interview conducted by Globovisión was violently interrupted by members of the community council of Isla de la Culebra, in the state of Carabobo, according to the National Union of Journalists of Caracas.