The IAPA denounces that the Venezuelan police are “hunting” for journalists

The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) denounced this Tuesday that “the repressive (police) forces” of Venezuela “They are on the hunt for journalists who cover the news,” especially those related to protests, COVID-19 and services.

These journalists “are physically assaulted and their cameras and cell phones are taken away,” says a preliminary report presented at the 77th General Assembly of the SIP, which must be approved by the Committee on Freedom of the Press during the meeting.

In it, they point out that, in Venezuela, “Many media operate” online that are independent and, “regularly”, are “blocked by instructions of the Executive branch to the telephone companies”.

“These media and the few that remain in the country find it quite difficult to carry out their work due to the permanent persecution of their journalists”, they add.

In this regard, they mentioned a report by the National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) in which they reported that, in the first presidential term of Nicolás Maduro (2013-2018), 115 media outlets disappeared.

In this sense, they emphasize that more than 60% of the population “finds out about any news through the official channel” of the State and “there are no independent television or radio media.”

“Those that exist are official or are self-censored. Newspapers and magazines do not have access to being able to print freely, due to the lack of access to paper ”, they add.

On the internet, they warn that “it goes through discretionary blocks” or there is “very limited access”, which led Venezuela to occupy “the last place” in quality of internet connection in Latin America.

“The situation of the media is catastrophic, almost fulfilling the promise of the Plan de la Patria of the communicational hegemony (of the Government), similar to the Cuban model”, apostillan.

THE HEADQUARTERS OF EL NACIONAL, TAKEN

Throughout this year, they consider that “the most prominent event was the seizure of the facilities” of the newspaper El Nacional by the State security forces.

“Based on the defamation lawsuit against El Nacional introduced by (Chavez’s number two) Diosdado Cabello, the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the newspaper to pay him 13 million dollars” for the dissemination of a news item, they recall.

The news, “which involves Cabello with illicit activities”, was initially published “in the Spanish newspaper ABC and the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal”, but later “it was reproduced by more than 80 media and the main international agencies.”

“By virtue of that ruling and without any type of legal procedure, the Army took over the newspaper building, removing those who were there, including those who had rented spaces. Since then, the Army occupies the facilities without any judicial order to support it ”, they maintain.

Among the “main attacks against journalists and the media,” it is worth mentioning that, on April 15, the SNTP denounced that officials linked to the government of the central state of Aragua harassed the journalist Gregoria Díaz, correspondent for the Crónica Uno portal and volunteer delegate of that union “for a note on the shortage of beds for patients with Covid-19.”

On May 28, journalist Martí Hurtado “was disappeared for more than 12 hours, after an unidentified police force raided his house” in the municipality of Punto Fijo, in the coastal state of Falcón.

That same month, in the central Lara state, journalists Naikarys Cordero and Eliagnis Mora, as well as photographer Dani Sosa, from the newspaper El Informador, “were intimidated by alleged officials” of the Police Special Actions Force (FAES) ” that they were not wearing uniforms ”and forced them to erase the material they had recorded.

Also at the beginning of October, “subjects wearing Bolivarian National Police uniforms, and on motorcycles, assaulted and shot graphic reporter Ronald Enrique Peña, of the El Pitazo portal in Caracas. He was not injured, but his motorcycle, documents and telephone were stolen ”.

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