With traditional Venezuelan news outlets shying away from critical coverage of the government, a handful of upstart websites have vigorously assumed this watchdog role, journalists and media.
The following is a CPJ Blog post by John Otis, CPJ Andes Correspondent:
When Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was rumored to be gravely ill four years ago, his socialist government was tightlipped about the diagnosis. Then in June 2011 a source in Havana, Cuba, where Chávez was being treated, told Nelson Bocaranda, a veteran columnist for the Caracas daily El Universal, that the president had cancer.
Fearing a backlash from the government, which has been cracking down on independent media, El Universal balked at running the story, Bocaranda said. “They didn’t dare publish it,” the journalist claimed in a video and Web interview in March, on the second anniversary of Chavez’s death. “So I figured, ‘OK, I will post this on my own Web page.’ ” Shortly afterwards, El Universal and other outlets published the story.
Read the full story on CPJ’s site.
