Journalist Joaquín Pérez Becerra arrived in Bogotá April 25 after being extradited by Venezuela for being “the head of the international front of the FARC in Europe,” referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerilla group, CNN and El Espectador report.
Even as the number of Internet users continues to grow, Internet freedom is increasingly threatened, and countries such as Venezuela, Jordan and Russia are especially at risk, according to a new report from Freedom House.
Journalists from Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Venezuela were three of the four winners of the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Prizes, organized by the Spanish newspaper El País.
Venezuela’s National Journalism Guild (CNP) and the National Press Workers’ Syndicate (SNTP) denounced a series of threats to freedom of expression from President Hugo Chávez’s government, highlighting the increasing lack of access to public information and impunity for crimes against journalists, El Universal reports.
El Nacional newspaper reports that two of its journalists were arrested by the police while covering a protest by flood victims in the capital city of Caracas.
Venezuela’s National Journalism Guild (CNP) condemned an attack against a press team with the Primero Justicia opposition political party by 40 people carrying state oil company identification, El Nacional reports.
Amid controversy for the decision to award him a prize, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez received the Rodolfo Walsh Prize in the category “Latin American President for Popular Communication," which the Universidad de La Plata awards every year, La Razón reports. See stories in English by Reuters, CNN, the Associated Press, and other sources.
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.
In recognition of the World Day against Cyber-Censorship, held March 12, the organization Reporters Without Borders gave out its annual award for online media and released a new list of countries named as "Internet enemies," including Cuba, reported the Associated Press and Telegraf.
The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the Organization of American States (OAS), Catalina Botero, said she was concerned with critics of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in the press facing libel suits, license suspensions, and broad “stigmatization,” El Universal reports.
An intern at the newspaper El Carabobeño received death threats from two individuals after covering a strike at a food factory in the city of Guacara, in the state of Carabobo, in central Venezuela, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS).
Journalist Clara Fernández died after being shot in the head on Feb. 23 in the northern city of Valencia, Canal de Noticia reports.