(IPYS/IFEX) – On Saturday 15 June 2002, supporters of President Hugo Chávez threatened the correspondents of the Globovision and Radio Caracas private television stations and the Radio Mundial local radio station. The assailants forced the journalists to stop reporting on a rally being held in the city of San Cristobal, Táchira State. The rally was […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On Saturday 15 June 2002, supporters of President Hugo Chávez threatened the correspondents of the Globovision and Radio Caracas private television stations and the Radio Mundial local radio station. The assailants forced the journalists to stop reporting on a rally being held in the city of San Cristobal, Táchira State. The rally was organised by the political parties Movimiento Quinta República (MVR), Patria Para Todos (PPT) and Partido Comunista de Venezuela (PCV) in support of the president and Táchira State Governor Ronald Blanco La Cruz.
A group of about 30 drunk and agitated individuals, armed with iron bars camouflaged as flagpoles with their respective political organisations’s flags, threatened to beat the journalists if they continued to report on the event.
The correspondents and local reporters were broadcasting from a building in the city centre near the rally, when the government supporters arrived at the scene intending to interrupt their work and began shouting at them, calling them “manipulators,” “CIA agents” and “prostitutes.”
The president’s supporters were angered after the journalists reported on the harassment of five members of the opposition party Primero Justicia, who were standing about 100 metres away from the rally collecting signatures in support of an amendment to the constitution that would limit the president’s term of office.
Since the violent incidents of 11 April, individuals identified as members of the Bolivarian Circles (Círculos Bolivarianos, pro-Chávez organisations) in Táchira State and from the neighbouring states of Mérida and Zulia have been acting more aggressively, to the point where some journalists have begun wearing bullet-proof vests.
Another attack on freedom of expression and journalists’ lives occurred on 13 April when the management at Grupo Radial González received numerous anonymous telephone calls calling for
the dismissal of news director Santiago Contreras. The callers issued death threats and also threatened to burn down the Ecos del Torbes radio station if the messages put out by the Bolivarian Circles calling for the “defense of the revolution” were not broadcast.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the authorities:
– protesting the incident and calling for the adoption of effective measures to prevent further attacks and threats against journalists
Appeals To
Isaías Rodríguez
Attorney General
Tel: +58 212 509 8054 / 58 212 509 8077
Fax: +58 212 576 4419
Ronald Blanco La Cruz
Táchira State Governor
Tel: +58 276 510 2800
Fax: +58 276 510 2801
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
