(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: CPJ Special Briefing On Venezuela: President Chávez Delivers An Earful But Is Press Freedom Being Drowned Out? New York, March 1, 2001 — Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez Frías gives new meaning to the term “radio frequency,” according to a special briefing released today by the Committee […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release:
CPJ Special Briefing On Venezuela: President Chávez Delivers An Earful But Is Press Freedom Being Drowned Out?
New York, March 1, 2001 — Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez Frías gives new meaning to the term “radio frequency,” according to a special briefing released today by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on its Web site, www.cpj.org The garrulous leader is using radio and television broadcasts to speak directly to his supporters, marginalizing the traditional press and often verbally attacking it, says the report.
President’s Chávez’s weekly call-in radio show “Alo, Presidente” consists of “conversations with adoring followers interspersed with soliloquies from the chief executive on topics such as the joys of having a girlfriend and ‘the revolutionary process in the universities,'” writes CPJ Americas program coordinator Marylene Smeets, the report’s author. The program usually lasts four hours, but often the president requires more airtime than that. “When Chávez wants to talk, television and radio stations
nationwide must preempt their regular programming,” writes Smeets.
While he exploits the reach of broadcast media, President Chávez has maintained a consistently antagonistic attitude toward media professionals since taking office in February 1999. His diatribes have to some extent undermined the credibility of the press, making local journalists targets of legal and even physical attacks, Smeets reports. And some Venezuelan journalists are now looking over their shoulders -saying that Chávez’s verbal attacks could be a precursor to government restrictions
on the press.
For more information, and to read CPJ’s special briefing, “Radio Chávez,” visit www.cpj.org
The briefing will also be included in CPJ’s annual report on press conditions around the world, Attacks on the Press in 2000, which will be released at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington on March 19, and will available in its entirety at www.cpj.org
CPJ’s fact-finding mission to Venezuela in October 2000 was funded by The Freedom Forum.
CPJ is an independent nonprofit organization based in New York that works to safeguard press freedom around the world.
