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By: José Meléndez *
São José. – The newspaper “El Nacional”, one of the emblems of Venezuelan journalism, was blocked by the government of Venezuela carry out any type of procedure before the Public Registry of that country, in the form of prolonged harassment, as an independent or “unrelated” means of communication or subject to the Chavista regime.
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“These are dictatorship measures: it is communicational hegemony, the long-term Cuban model. And they have achieved this. In Venezuela there is no free press”, accused Venezuelan journalist Miguel Henrique Otero, president and director of “El Nacional”, comparing the crisis with the state monopoly of the press in Cuba.
“This is getting in the way of work. They prevent us from having bank accounts, transferring assets, carrying out operations, signing contracts and registering them or registering appointments. When someone leaves the company, we cannot register their departure either,” Otero told the Mexican newspaper “El Universal”.
“These are mechanisms to disrupt the company’s work. This, the blocking of ‘El Nacional’ on the internet and the confiscation of its facilities make it increasingly impossible for the newspaper to operate in Venezuela”, he highlighted.
Insisting that “these are totally arbitrary acts”, he stated that “it is a dictatorship acting against a means of communication, using forms of abuse and obstruction to prevent its regular functioning”.
“In Venezuela there are only a few social networks that have not yet been closed. Independent media are completely paralyzed and hampered”, she highlighted, in a telephone conversation from Spain.
“The Venezuelan media outlets that have not yet been closed and whose networks can be unblocked are working tooth and nail. They blocked their administrative processes and are persecuting journalists,” she described.
No official Venezuelan source was available for “El Universal” investigations into these complaints. As one of its customs since its installation in 1999, the regime denied that it persecutes journalists and media outlets, stated that it respected freedom of the press and expression and accused that there is a media apparatus at the service of United States “imperialism” to discredit the Venezuelan revolution.
Born in 1943, “El Nacional” suspended its print edition in 2018 due to the lack of paper and the acute political, institutional and socioeconomic crisis in Venezuela.
The Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela (TSJ), loyal to Maduro, sentenced the morning man in April 2021 to compensate Lieutenant Diosdado Cabello, number two of the revolution, with around 13.3 million dollars for moral damages.
Cabello sued the newspaper for defamation in April 2015 for reproducing a report from the Spanish newspaper ABC that the powerful politician had begun to be investigated in the US for alleged links to drug trafficking.
The process progressed towards occupying the facilities. Otero left Venezuela when Cabello filed the lawsuit and has remained abroad since then, but the politician managed to impose precautionary measures on him in May 2015.
Venezuelan lawyer Juan Garantón, defender of El Nacional, explained this Monday to “El Universal” that the Venezuelan media “have been taken to the extreme: they prohibit us from registering properties, selling shares or registering any document”.
“There is a universal prohibition that violates the right to private property, commerce and any right of the newspaper’s legal entity and has no legal basis”, he pointed out.
After highlighting that the 2021 sentence was handed down “without a trial that demonstrated that there was defamation or slander”, he claimed that “on this basis they have these prohibitions, an unnecessary chain of sanctions that has been going on for a long time. It is very complicated”.
*Journalist for the newspaper “El Universal” in Mexico / GDA
Source: Elcomercio
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.
