The government's new so-called "situation agency" has the power to suppress "any information" deemed of national interest and will likely be seen as a further restriction by the Chávez administration of anti-government news, before legislative elections on Sept. 26, AFP reports.
On the recent third anniversary of the forced closure of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), whose editorial line opposed President Hugo Chávez, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) released a video of Marcel Granier, RCTV’s general manager, discussing attacks by the government against private media.
The Venezuelan chapter of the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) has released its most recent publication, Methods of Impertinence, a collection of best practices and lessons for investigative journalism in Latin America. The book combines testimonies from 10 prominent journalists from the region that were presented between 2005 and 2009 at events in Mexico, and the Venezuelan cities of Caracas, Maracaibo, and Puerto La Cruz.
First he went on television and radio. Next, he started tweeting. Now, President Chávez has launched an official blog to communicate with Venezuelans, ABC and Europa Press report.
As part of an offensive against the black market for dollars, President Hugo Chávez urged supporters to use Twitter to blow the whistle on currency speculators and warned that illegal trading sites could be shut down the Associated Press reports.
Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, an outspoken Chávez opponent and former presidential candidate, had been in the intelligence service's custody since March 22 after saying in a TV interview that Venezuela had become a haven for drug trafficking. He was released from house arrest Thursday (May 14) and ordered not to leave Venezuela or speak about the case with reporters, AFP reports. He must present himself to the court every 15 days.
President Chávez has opened a Twitter account and published his first messages on the popular social network, following an earlier promise to use the Internet as his "trench" from which to provide information and respond to his enemies. See these stories.
President Chávez has opened a Twitter account and published his first messages on the popular social network, following an earlier promise to use the Internet as his "trench" from which to provide information and respond to his enemies. See these stories.
Prosecutors have charged two people in the kidnapping of Luis Gerardo Núñez, a reporter for the Globovisión TV network who was rescued in Caracas Friday night by police after a ransom was paid, Globovisión and El Carabobeño report. He was abducted for at least 48 hours.
Venezuela's new minister of communication and information, Tania Díaz, swore in the first 75 "communication guerrillas," members of school youth groups formed to “democratize” information and counterattack “the power of private media." See stories (in Spanish) by El Universal and El Nacional.
The president's ongoing battle against what he calls the "oligarchic media" has added a new front. The radio program "Suddenly with Chávez" (De Repente con Chávez) began broadcasting Feb. 8, and as its name suggests, it can go on the air at any moment, the Guardian and Times of London report.
El Nacional published a front-page image that shows a soldier holding the chain and hooks before a group of students who were protesting the closure of the RCTV cable station. The newspaper also reports that prosecutors have begun a criminal investigation against it over the image published Jan. 28.