Venezuela

Exorbitant fines, jail sentences or the closure of media outlets… These are some of the outcomes of legal instruments used against journalism in Latin America and the Caribbean today.

The case of Tulio Alvarez has sparked concern from freedom of expression advocates, who say that the criminal law should not be used to silence people who write about public issues.

From murals to urban interventions, community art projects to writing contests, CCSCity450 is challenging residents of Caracas to reclaim the streets – an act of creative resistance in a time where crime, hunger, and free expression violations dominate daily life in the Venezuelan capital.

A court in the capital Caracas ordered Jesus Medina Ezaine to military prison; he was detained August 29 after working on a reporting project at a hospital and charged with crimes including inciting hate.

The IFEX-ALC is calling for the immediate release of Pedro Jaimes Criollo, a Twitter user detained and tortured for posting public information about the presidential aircraft on his aerospace news account.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is calling on Venezuela’s government to halt its investigation of El Nacional, and to allow the newspaper to publish freely.

Threats, harassment and assaults against media outlets and journalists continue to intensify under the Maduro administration

In what journalists fear could be a taste of things to come, Venezuela’s new anti-hate law was enforced for the first time against a news organisation when a newspaper editor was called before government agents for questioning.

The radical downsizing at El Carabobeño, which is one of the few independent news outlets in Valencia willing to criticize government officials, mirrors the crisis at regional newspapers across Venezuela.

Since public demonstrations began in March, there have been over 160 violations of the right to freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right to seek, receive and impart information.

A Venezuelan court fined the independent news website La Patilla the equivalent of U.S.$500,000 for republishing a 2015 story from a Spanish newspaper alleging that a top Venezuelan official had ties to drug trafficking.

29 people have died and 106 press workers were attacked, arrested, robbed and assaulted during news coverage of the protests in Venezuela.

Free expression violations have been occurring in Venezuela for many years. So why is the latest crisis an unprecedented event for journalists and media?

In recent months, the obstruction of foreign journalists working in Venezuela has included expulsions, the seizure of material and equipment, and outright censorship.

In Cauca, Colombia, three journalists of the Cali newspaper El País were approached and intimidated by two armed men who identified themselves as members of the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Two Brazilian journalists investigating a continent-wide corruption ring were detained over the weekend in Venezuela, according to press reports. Separately, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced at a rally that he wanted CNN out of the country.