Posts Tagged ‘Venezuela’
September 1st, 2011
The editor of satirical
Venezuelan weekly newspaper 6to Poder
has turned himself in to police on Tuesday while under investigation over a front-page photomontage that angered allies of President Hugo Chávez. Authorities had sought Leocenis García while investigating him on charges of insulting public officials and instigating hatred. The publication and circulation of the magazine were briefly
prohibited after it published a cover with six Venezuelan government officials portrayed as cabaret dancers on 21 August. García insists he is innocent.
August 31st, 2011
A judge has this week
lifted a week-old court ruling banning the distribution of a
Venezuelan magazine after it published a satirical article featuring government officials portrayed as cabaret dancers, which had been deemed offensive to women and public officials. However, the weekly, 6to Poder, was still prohibited from referring to the case in print or from publishing similar content. The paper’s owner and a top executive were charged last week with inciting hatred, insulting a public official, and publicly denigrating women. The criminal cases against them are ongoing.
August 24th, 2011
A court in Caracas has
issued a temporary injunction to prohibit the publication and circulation of satirical magazine 6to Poder after it published a cover with six
Venezuelan government officials portrayed as cabaret dancers on 21 August. On the same day, the Bolivarian Intelligence Service arrested the magazine’s editor, Dinorah Girón, and put out a warrant for the arrest of the president of the company, Leocenis García.
August 22nd, 2011
A journalist with newspaper El Mío, was
beaten and then detained as he left the newspapers premises in Anzoátegui, northeastern
Venezuela. Óscar Tarazona was getting into a car when he spotted the police officers, Tarazona claims he walked over, identified himself as a journalist, and officers proceeded to beat him, handcuff him and take him to a police station. The initial attack was
caught on video. Tarazona was released and subsequently filed a formal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office. The state’s chief of police, Francisco Ortiz, said that he stood behind the officers.
August 16th, 2011
Venezuelan reporter Carlos Sánchez was
threatened with a pistol when he left the offices of Radio Fe y Alegría in the city of Maracaibo on 1 August. The unknown gunmen beat and robbed Sánchez, and then drove him around the city for an hour before releasing him. In a
separate case in the country, a programme on radio station Primerísima 98.5 FM, Magazine Informativo, was last month cancelled just fifteen days after its first broadcast due to political pressure. Presenter and journalist Henry Viola said the station’s director informed him the show would be cut “following orders from above”.
March 2nd, 2011
Venezuelan journalist Clara Fernandez has been
killed in a shooting in Valencia. She was allegedly caught in crossfire in a fight between two rival gangs. The details relating to her death are as yet unclear. The Venezuelan National Journalism Guild is pressing for the state authorities to investigate.
February 9th, 2011
Journalist Gustavo Azócar is being
prosecuted again on the charge of libelling an army officer in 2004. This comes as part of a series of actions which have been brought against him, and has provoked accusations of
judicial harassment. The allegation relates to an article which Azócar wrote as a correspondent for El Universal. The story concerned purported trafficking in identity papers by the National Office for Identification and Foreigners. Azócar has repeatedly invited the soldier to use his guaranteed right of reply. He indicated that he would do so when he received permission from the defence ministry, which has still not been granted.
August 19th, 2010
Yesterday (
18 August) El Nacional, a leading Venezuelan newspaper ran a front page with “censored” written across it. The move was a response to a Caracas court ruling that has effectively
banned newspapers from publishing images of violence or bloody scenes. El Nacional was
found guilty of publishing pictures which may have been harmful to children after it ran a photo showed dead bodies at a morgue. The
anti-Chavez publication was told that it may be fined up to two per cent of its revenue for its actions. The newspaper’s editor has accused the government of trying to cover up violent crime in run-up to next month’s election.
