The Venezuelan press reported 87 allegations of assaults, intimidation and censorship between January and July, 2011, according to a recent report by the human rights group Espacio Público.
Unidentified gunmen fired on a Venezuelan state-run television station, Vive TV, in the country's western state of Zulia on Sunday, July 31. leaving two people injured, reported El Universal.
A potential opposition presidential candidate and former state governor in Venezuela, Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, was convicted July 13 of “spreading false information” in a March 2010 interview with Globovisión, The Press and Society Institute and The Associated Press report.
The National Association of Journalists (CNP in Spanish) in Venezuela accused state media of spreading "hate" messages and urged authorities to take action to curb this practice with the same speed they normally investigate and punish private media, alluding to the recent complaint filed against opposition television station Globovisión, reported El Universal.
After a six-week investigation, Venezuelan police have concluded that journalist Wilfred Ojeda was killed in revenge over a debt and had nothing to do with his journalistic work, reported ACN.
The National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL in Spanish) of Venezuela has filed another complaint against opposition television station Globovisión for "inciting hatred" for covering a deadly prison riot in mid-June in the northern state of Miranda, according to the newspaper El Tiempo.
The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) issued two alerts for journalists who were attacked and threatened on university campuses in Peru and Venezuela.
Rafael Maitín, the owner of Pedraza TV, based in the city of Pedraza in the state of Barinas, accused Mayor Yusein Silva of being behind the May 12 shutdown of his station, the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reports.
The Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela (CAIV) has filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office against Radio Nacional Venezuela (RNV) and a media worker for broadcasting a message it called “clearly anti-Semitic,” TalCualDigital reports.
Reporters from Vive TV told prosecutors they were attacked by allies of Henri Falcón, the governor of the northeastern Venezuelan state of Lara, while covering a protest against the state’s water utility company, Hidrolara, Radio Nacional de Venezuela (RNV) reports.
Journalist and political activist Wilfred Iván Ojeda Peralta was found dead of a bullet wound to the head in the northern city of Revenga, Aragua, Reuters reported. Ojeda’s body was discovered Tuesday, May 17, 2011.
Unlike Mexico, where dozens of journalists have been killed in the last decade, Venezuelan journalists don’t work under a climate of constant threats to their lives, however they do face “systematic” pressure from the government, whose supporters are responsible for 28% of the attacks against the press, the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reports.