(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 9 July 2002 IAPA press release: IAPA protests wave of violence against journalists in Venezuela The organisation calls for investigations into the kidnapping of a journalist and acts of violence unleashed against journalists and media outlets MIAMI, Florida (July 9, 2002)-The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 9 July 2002 IAPA press release:
IAPA protests wave of violence against journalists in Venezuela
The organisation calls for investigations into the kidnapping of a journalist and acts of violence unleashed against journalists and media outlets
MIAMI, Florida (July 9, 2002)-The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern at a wave of violence unleashed against journalists and news media in Venezuela recently and publicly called on the authorities to investigate and punish those responsible, as the only way to ensure the people’s right to know.
“We view with alarm an increased intensity in attacks on Venezuelan journalists and media and we do not see this wave of violence ending unless the government takes concerted action to seek to put an end to such acts of intimidation by carrying out a thorough investigation and meting out exemplary punishment,” IAPA President Robert J. Cox said.
Rafael Molina, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, added the warning that “if the free practice of journalism is not guaranteed, sooner or later we will see the entire Venezuelan society virtually held hostage.”
Cox, assistant editor of The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina, and Molina, editor of the news magazine Ahora, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, together said that the IAPA is considering sending another delegation to Venezuela to look into the state of press freedom there. The hemispheric organization sent a mission to Venezuela in February this year. At that time, they warned of the risk of violence being waged against journalists and a series of legal measures that would curtail normal news gathering activity.
IAPA officials strongly condemned the recent threats to press freedom resulting from a number of violent acts against journalists and news media. They specifically expressed concern at the kidnapping of Fabio Cortés, owner of the San Cristobal daily La Nacion, an incident that so far remains unsolved. He was abducted by three masked men who violently entered his home on June 29 and forced him to go with them him after threatening his wife and two daughters.
Early this morning, unidentified individuals traveling in an automobile threw a grenade into the parking lot of the Globovision television station, causing material damage but no injuries.
On July 6, unidentified persons set fire to the automobile of José Angel Ocanto, managing editor of the Barquisimeto newspaper El Impulso, in what was seen as an apparent reprisal for reports in his column “Campaña en el desierto” (Desert Campaign) alleging local government corruption.
On July 5, Sabrina Segovia, Caracas correspondent of the Notitarde television news program, was beaten up by government supporters and in a similar incident in mid-June reporter Alicia La Rotta from El Universal, Caracas, was struck by a state security police officer who was pretending to be a journalist.
Luis Botello, director of Latin American programs for the International Center for Journalists, based in Washington, D.C., complained he had been threatened when an official from the Venezuelan Journalists College told him he could be deported for saying that press freedom did not exist in that country. Botello was in Venezuela holding a training seminar for journalists on Margarita Island June 27-29. He was later held for some time by officials at the airport when he was about to leave for Washington.
There were other acts of violence in mid-June by government supporters who targeted vehicles belonging to the Televen and Globovision television stations and the newspaper El Siglo.
Another attack occurred on June 29 in Anzoátegui state, when a group of journalists who had been summoned to a press conference were beaten up and verbally abused by local police officers.
