(IPYS/IFEX) – On 13 October 2003, members of the National Guard and security police (Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención, DISIP) attempted to restrict access by the press to a residents’ assembly at facilities owned by the state petroleum company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), in San Tomé, Anzoátegui state, in north-eastern Venezuela. In […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 13 October 2003, members of the National Guard and security police (Dirección de los Servicios de Inteligencia y Prevención, DISIP) attempted to restrict access by the press to a residents’ assembly at facilities owned by the state petroleum company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), in San Tomé, Anzoátegui state, in north-eastern Venezuela. In addition, a photojournalist was forced to erase his photographs during the incident.
Moreyba Castellanos, a reporter for “El Tiempo” daily in Anzoátegui, told IPYS that a group of journalists managed to get around a barricade that had been erected by the army’s Bacazaraza Battalion, the National Guard and the security police. The barricade was put in place to impede journalists from accessing a residential area, where former PDVSA employees were being evicted.
Daniel Olivares, a photojournalist for “El Tiempo”, was stopped by the National Guard, but his equipment was not taken from him.
José Sequea, a journalist for “La Prensa”, in Anzoátegui, and “El Progreso” daily, in Bolívar state, southern Venezuela, managed to take photographs of one incident where residents were being evicted. A DISIP officer asked Sequea to show him the photographs and forced the journalist to erase them from his digital camera. The officer then accompanied Sequea to the compound’s entrance and tried to take away his camera.
According to Castellanos, this is not the first time that journalists in the region have faced this type of situation. On 30 September, approximately 15 supporters of President Hugo Chávez tried to take away Olivares’ camera while he was covering an eviction at the petroleum company’s facilities.
“We are not afraid, even if they think we are powerless, we will remain on guard. We will continue to inform the public and, God willing, we will keep doing our work,” Castellanos told IPYS.
