Miguel Henrique Otero: “We are going to continue working, we are not going to silence ourselves”

This Wednesday afternoon, El Nacional was once again the victim of intimidation actions by the regime of Nicolas Maduro. A prosecutor from the Public Ministry arrived accompanied by a commission from the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigation Corps (Cicpc) to the home of journalist and editor José Gregorio Meza. They took him away for questioning.

Regarding the situation, the editor-in-chief of The National, Miguel Henrique Otero, explained that in addition to Meza, the Public Ministry summoned 6 other people. The families of two of them were threatened.

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«This has to do with the research papers that we have published on the moron brothers, Santiago José and Ricardo José, because although I have been accused, and we still do not have clear reasons, the two journalists who carried out the work have been requested by the Prosecutor’s Office. Although they do not live in Venezuela, Ramón Hernández and Carola Briceño have threatened their families. They tell them not to post any more. They can’t do anything against them because they’re out of the country, but they threaten their families.”Otero said.

In exile in Spain, the editor-in-chief of The National indicated that it is a new attack by the regime. “Right now the most important thing is that of José Gregorio Meza because he was summoned and questioned at the Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday and this Thursday he has to return to continue the questioning. But additionally, they cited the Human Resources Manager, that she has nothing to do with editorial content. This is a new attack against the medium for publishing things that bother the regime.

In the same way, he indicated that he will add this situation to a file that he will present before the International Criminal Court. He pointed out that the persecution and attacks on the media have been systematic.

“It is important to note that this is added to the file that we are taking to the International Criminal Court, where they opened the complaints for individuals. We will present the case of The National with everything that has happened. Now this adds up. Of course, the ICC is very interested in this type of thing because it is a process that is advancing very quickly and this is one more element because it is about freedom of expression, about the harassment of journalists. It is a systematic action for a long time and meets the requirements of complaints to the ICC, which is the systematization of attacks.”

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Added: «We have suffered all kinds of attacks, even at a certain moment they planted a bomb on us, they have attacked journalists in the exercise of their profession, they have harassed us administratively, tax-related and later they prevented us from having access to newsprint. We became a web platform and then, with Diosdado Cabello’s defamation lawsuit, they took the building from us with the army because it was not a legal trial.”

The chasing

Otero stressed that what is happening with The National it is a demonstration of how journalists are persecuted in the exercise of their profession. «Now that we are doing investigative work, we already know the consequences of doing journalism and investigation: they go against journalists. They use, I don’t know what mechanism, probably the Hate Law, which was made to attack those who disagree, those who criticize, journalists.

He recalled that the portal has been blocked to prevent citizens from having access to information. “They block the page of a newspaper that has no paper and go against the journalists.”

El Nacional will keep you informed

Otero assured that The National will keep reporting on what is happening in the country. He pointed out that journalists and workers should not be quoted because they are not responsible for the editorial line of the media.

«We will continue denouncingWe are not going to shut up. It is not the first nor will it be the last time that the regime attacks us for publishing material that it is in our interest for them to be known. We will continue to do journalism. We hope that the regime does not have the audacity to go against the journalists and summon them to testify. They are not responsible for the editorial line.

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The publisher president reaffirmed his commitment to his workers. He maintained that he will continue to denounce the persecution they suffer. “We are going to denounce all these outrages. And we will defend our workers, but we are talking about a criminal corporation that attacks people in this way. In this case it is seen that the moron brothers they are in a business that is growing under the strength of ‘Nicolasito’. And they don’t want anyone to find out because, in addition, they are taking businesses away from other members of the regime. There’s an internal problem that they don’t want people to know about.”

He added that the Public Ministry summons him to intimidate journalists. “Look what’s going to happen to them.” It is trying to silence the journalists of El Nacional and the collaborators”.

Finally, he commented that Venezuela the exercise of journalism becomes more and more difficult. Freedom of the press is continually threatened. «In Venezuela, public powers are an appendage of the Executive. In Venezuela there are more than 200 political prisoners. In addition to all the repressive apparatus that they have set up without any kind of legal forms. So what else could it be but a dictatorship that does not yield to any of the conditions for a democracy to function.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.