These problems go back even further than Maduro though. As I have written about before, the president of Globovision was arrested and freed after a crisis in 2010. According to the Attorney General of Venezuela, the president of anti-government television station faced three to five months for publishing false information, but also three to five months for comments "offensive to the president."
BBC writes...
"According to Venezuela's Communication Ministry (Minci), some 70% of Venezuela's radio and TV stations are in private hands with just under 5% are state-owned. The rest are community media organisations, most pro-government.
The most popular TV channels are privately-owned Venevision and Televen. Both used to be vociferous opponents of the government, but have toned down their criticism in recent years."
Even in 2014, there were massive protests on the streets of venezuela that received barely any local coverage. Venezuela has a law called the Law on Social Responsibility on Radio and Television that is not entirely specific in nature, but generally has been criticized as serving as the government's excuse to censor media.
With the 2004 passage of the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, the government won wide latitude to censor media in order to "promote social justice and further the development of the citizenry, democracy, peace, human rights, education, culture, public health, and the nation’s social and economic development." The law was expanded to include the Internet and social media in 2011.
Lately, tensions have been coming to a head in the media blackout of 2017. Protesters have filled the streets, demanding regime change through general election and freedom for political prisoners. Not to mention the media is currently not reporting on anything.
"First, major broadcast media have made a calculated decision to just not cover news of nationwide protests...On top of that, journalists who do take the risks and go go out to try to cover the news face a bad and deteriorating situation.
Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS, a press freedom NGO) has tallied 25 separate incidents involving the obstruction of press coverage through Monday:
"19 physical aggressions, 11 intimidation attempts, 4 attacks against work tools, 3 arbitrary detentions, 3 robberies and one attack against a media outlet (in Coro)."
At the same time, another local digital media outlet apparently suffered a suspected DDoS attack: Contrapunto.com said access to its main web page was affected, that would make it the sixth one this year. A previous set of similar cyber-attacks came about one month ago. There were also rumours of possible raids against other digital media outlets like VivoPlay, which later turned out to be false...Then, the big protests on April 10th happened. The count went up to 32 incidents in just a matter of 24 hours."
The Inter-American commission on Human Rights condemns the situation in Venezuela, writing...
"Washington, D.C. - The IACHR condemns the repression of public demonstrations in Venezuela and urges the State to respect and guarantee the necessary conditions for the exercise of political rights, freedom of expression and the right of peaceful assembly of those protesting in the country...Of particular concern is the information received regarding alleged attacks and confiscation of equipment and materials of journalists and media workers by security officials and groups of armed civilians during the demonstrations. It was also reported that a cameraman was detained and not allowed to cover the protest held on April 6th. Attacks against journalists covering situations of this nature violate freedom of expression because they are prevented from exercising their right to seek and disseminate information, and a chilling effect is generated. It also deprives society of the right to know the information obtained by journalists. In this sense, the IACHR continues to reiterate the importance of the most robust protection of the right to freedom of expression of media in Venezuela, especially regarding the situation experienced in the country."
The good news is that social media is making it more possible than ever for journalists to be heard, even in oppressive regimes like those of Venezuela. As a closing thought for this paper, have some tweets from people in Venezuela.
The state of my country in one image.— Marcel Rasquin (@MarcelRasquin) May 4, 2017
The People vs The Dictatorship
Photo by: @miguelgutierrezphoto #Venezuela… https://t.co/ppT5MYpAbP pic.twitter.com/MZBKovmKnP
Venezuela may the 4th be with you 💛💙❤ pic.twitter.com/HNi5UuoRGy— Carlos Alberto (@CarlosSTEAGLE) May 4, 2017
Estos son los "violentos" q tanto critica el gobierno, ayudándome al momento de ser golpeado por las bombas lacrimógenas de la GNB... pic.twitter.com/MslXm7NQy1— Roman Camacho (@RCamachoVzla) April 11, 2017
