Today is World Press Freedom Day. The Colegio Nacional de Periodistas [National College of Journalists] took advantage of the day to release a statement titled “Along with Freedom of the Press, Democracy is Dying in Venezuela”:
Today, May 3 2014, thanks to a UNESCO initiative, World Press Freedom Day is being celebrated all over the world, except in Venezuela, where the press is living through the worst period of its history: we live in a period of great defencelessness, of loss of job opportunities, of persecution, disqualification, of aggressions without punishment by the state, of economic strangulation, of bankruptcies of private companies, and above all else, of direct censure, with calls made by ministers to the owners of the media for them to silence certain voices or ideas, to hide the truth, to sweeten the news, always to give the impression that nothing is going on; and finally, of auto-censure, in which some of our colleagues, along with the owners, yield to silence as a way to survive, even though Venezuelans suffer the consequences.
The National College of Journalists has amongst its functions, according to sections 5 and 6 of article 5 of the 1972 law which created it, “Contribute to the strengthening, amplification and the entrenchment of democracy in Venezuela”, and to “safeguard freedom of expression, the right to inform and the right to information”. In this way freedom of the press is paradigmatic. For this reason, we raise our voices to denounce what we can qualify as a State policy to silence free press, as part of its war against knowledge, the development of citizens and information: so far this year, 190 media employees have been assaulted, of which 140 are journalists. The so called colectivos, fascist shock troops that use violence to impose their ideas, have been the authors of 24 of these attacks. The impunity and indifference of the Maduro government are the response we have received for the majority of the complaints we have presented.
This violence is just another ingredient of the state of debilitation of the freedom of the press, a human right which is severely compromised in Venezuela: the negative [campaign] of the Centro de Comercio Exterior [Centre of Foreign Commerce] of allowing private press organizations to convert bolivares to dollars for the importation of paper and other resources has condemned to silence important media outlets. Some have disappeared, and those which have not, have reduced their number of pages, which translates to less information for the people and fewer spaces for knowledge. It is interesting that State media outlets and those aligned with the anti-democratic ideology of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela do not complain of a lack of paper or resources, which can mean two things: they do not have those problems (which would be evidence of discrimination against other outlets), or that they are not allowed to complain due to auto-censure.
The National College of Journalists, on this Press Freedom Day, cannot let the latest efforts by the national government to end the right of Venezuelans to dissent, as were the raids on the headquarters of the NGO Mundo sin Mordaza [roughly, “World Without Gags”], and those of the website Reporte Confidencial. Also, [we] reject the persecution of the journalist Johali Carmona in Venezolana de Television for the fact that her husband publicly complained about the Instituto Venezolano de Seguros Sociales [Venezuelan Social Securities Institute], the disqualifications made by Luisa Ortega Diaz, the Attorney General of the Republic, against the foreign journalist Ismael Cala; the embarrassing censure imposed upon the journalist Shirley Vargnay in Globovision, whose directors cut an interview with the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature winner, Mario Vargas Llosa. Freedom of expression is a universal right, and so we at the National College of Journalists are obligated to defend it, whether those affected are Venezuelans or otherwise, because beyond those who are being censured or disqualified, the right of people to receive information exists, whether or not the authorities like it.
Democracy, the only political system guaranteed by the National Constitution of 1999, whose text was ratified in 2007 by the Venezuelan people, with only one amendment in 2009 which did not touch its essence, is only possible when, along with elections, the government guarantees the right of the people to express their opinions without risk to their physical integrity. Moreover, democracy is only complete when the government of the majority exerts its power respecting minorities and incorporates them for the universal development of the country.
Journalism is democracy, and this is only possible in liberty. If journalists cannot speak the raw truth, then what he have is not journalism but propaganda, which is the closest thing to lies.
For his part, Maduro spoke in 11 cadenas nacionales [where every television and media outlet is forced to show his speeches in their entireties] for a total of 22 hours and 23 minutes in the month of April. Out of the 11 cadenas, five entered around politics, four around economics, and one on education. The total for his presidency sits at 147 cadenas, for a total of 193 hours and 23 minutes.
It was revealed today that out of the 74 students who are still detained by the government, 47% are being held in “dangerous prisons”, including the infamous Uribana, Rodeo, and Yare III prisons.
In Venezuela 