The government of Hugo Chavez took 32 radio and two television stations off the air last year, and to remember the occasion, journalists, media workers and former employees of the closed stations participated in a demonstration that branded the government's action as "arbitrary and illegal", reported AFP.
Government officials and soldiers from the National Guard took over one of the farms owned by Guillermo Zuloaga, the majority shareholder of opposition TV station Globovisión, El Nacional reports.
The prosecutor’s office has charged Perla Jaimes, the lawyer who both represents Globovisión owner Guillermo Zuloaga and the opposition station itself, with allegedly obstructing a court order during the raid of the businessman’s house last May, El Carabobeño reports.
President Hugo Chavez announced that his government effectively owns more than a 45 percent stake in Globovisión, a station highly critical of his administration, and that in the next several days he would appoint a member to the channel’s board, Reuters and El Universal report.
After two days in jail in Venezuela, two Colombian journalists from the television station RCN and two more from a regional station were deported, accused of illegally entering Venezuela, reported the Latin American Herald Tribune and El Tiempo.
Venezuela's Supreme Court emphasized one more time that freedom of expression is not an absolute right, and established various limitations to access to governmental information, reported El Tiempo.
The pro-Chavez Necessary Journalism Movement asked the Venezuelan government to investigate the Institute of Press and Society (IPYS) and Public Space, which according to declassified documents receive millions of dollars in funding from the U.S. government, reported El Universal and El Nacional.
Two Twitter users -- a 35-year-old woman and 41-year-old man -- were arrested last week in Venezuela, accused of using the social network site to spread "false rumors" in an attempt to "destabilize the national banking system" after the take-over of Banco Federal for liquidity problems, reported El Nacional and EFE.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez upped his verbal attacks against opposition television station Globovisión, and reiterated that the government could confiscate the channel's stock in order to recuperate the money he alleges the station owners stole, reported El Universal and the Associated Press.
The prosecutor's office believes it has sufficient evidence to charge Guillermo Zuloaga, president of the news station Globovisión, the only channel critical of the government still on the air in Venezuela, reported El Universal.
Journalists throughout Venezuela celebrated Day of the Journalist on Sunday, June 27. In Caracas, journalists took to the streets, fighting for freedom of expression and an end to attacks against the media, reported El Universal.
As Venezuela prepares to celebrate the Day of the Journalist on Sunday, June 27, journalists in that country have found themselves confronting in the past two weeks numerous challenges to the freedom of expression, according to an analysis in El Tiempo.