Venezuela

“We condemn the fact that in Venezuela the government always describes as media campaigns and conspiracies any information that can be critical or that points out wrongdoing,” said the Inter American Press Association.

Facing government lawsuits, spiralling costs, diminishing advertising revenue, and the illness of its founder, the 15-year-old newspaper has downsized in a last-ditch effort to survive.

Twenty-eight international and Latin American human rights organizations are calling on the Venezuelan government to stop making unsubstantiated allegations against human rights defenders.

On February 20, 2015, a VerTVNoticas crew were detained for three hours at the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service, after a state security official thought that the journalists were taking photos of military headquarters.

A year after protests broke out in Venezuela, people are back in the streets, this time risking physical retaliation from military granted powers to use “potentially lethal weapons”.

Venezuela has granted powers to the military to use force to control peaceful demonstrations, Human Rights Watch said today. On January 23, 2015, the Defense Ministry issued a resolution authorizing the Armed Forces to maintain “public order” and “social peace” during “public meetings and demonstrations.”

The falling price of oil has brought with it long lines and empty supermarket shelves, highlighting economic issues that the government would rather not discuss.

Curtailing freebies is one way Correo del Caroní is adjusting to a critical shortage of newsprint in Venezuela.

Venezuelans are some of the few citizens in the Americas who do not have a legal right to ask their government for information, since it refuses to create a law that makes its administrative functions transparent or accountable to the public.

On November 24, 2014, Edickson Durán and Abraham Palencia, photojournalists with El Impulso and La Prensa newspapers, and Tomás Gaona, the cameraman for Promar Televisión, received death threats from a National Bolivarian Guard official, while covering a confrontation at the David Viloria Penitentiary Center.

From August 22 to October 15, 2014, at least seven persons were detained for expressing their opinions on Twitter.

Venezuelan authorities have repeatedly blocked access to Argentinian news outlet Grupo Infobae, after the outlet published photos of the body of a murdered Venezuelan congressman.

Journalist Odell López said the motive for her dismissal could be related to her stance as an advocate for freedom of press.

After 19 years working for El Universal, cartoonist Rayma Suprani was fired over her cartoon critical of the national health system, following recent changes in the paper’s ownership and editorial line.

A paper shortage resulting from government currency controls has so far forced 37 newspapers in Venezuela to suspend or reduce their print editions.

Tareck El Aissami, Aragua state governor, has been authorised to investigate reporters who have written about a possible outbreak of Ebola at the Central Hospital in Maracay, capital city of Aragua.