Venezuela's Ch?vez Runs Against the Press

By: Mark Fitzgerald In his tumultuous five years as president of Venezuela, the mercurial Hugo Ch?vez has stood out as an especially relentless enemy of the press even in a hemisphere with a long history of hostility to free reporting.

He has changed the constitution to make prosecuting journalists easier -- and prior government censorship legal. He imposed currency controls that effectively starve newspapers of newsprint. He commandeers the airwaves at will under a law that requires all broadcasters to carry his speeches.

But international free-press observers are becoming increasingly alarmed at the deteriorating situation in Venezuela as Ch?vez faces a recall election in August. The president makes no distinction between the political opponents he brands as "oligarchs" and the news media. As the opposition gathered signatures for the recall -- and then were forced to re-gather them in an odd procedure ordered by the Ch?vez-appointed election commission -- the government repeatedly unleashed its fury against news organizations as well as political challengers.

The very day the recall petitions were validated by the election commission, for instance, mobs allegedly led by government operatives attacked the offices of the Caracas daily El N?cional, burning cars, breaking windows and attempting unsuccessfully to force their way inside. (The newspaper has posted a series of photos of the violence on its Web site.)

Mobs in Caracas also attacked the offices of the daily newspaper As? es la Noticia, where they destroyed 16 vehicles, and the daily "2001," where two vehicles and a truck were set afire, the Miami-based Inter American Press Association (IAPA) reported.

"We condemn attacks of violence, those disrespecting the citizens' decisions try to get attention not through dialogue or peace, but through destruction and intolerance," said Rafael Molina, chairman of IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information. "One of the signs of respect for freedom of expression on the part of government officials would be conducting an investigation to identify and bring to justice those responsible for the violence," added Molina of the Dominican Republic newspaper El Nacional.

At its annual meeting, the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN) "strongly condemned the repression of freedom of speech and the press" in Venezuela. WAN noted that Ch?vez has suggested to what is essentially a rubber-stamp legislature that it increase the range of libel that can be considered a criminal offense. This is no idle threat, as the case of Ib?yise Pacheco, a columnist for El Nacional, demonstrates. In her "En Privado" column, the journalist alleged that a colonel had altered a grade to pass a law school course. On May 25, a Caracas court sentenced her to nine months in prison for "aggravated defamation," reported the Lima, Peru-based Institute for Press and Society (IPYS). Pacheco remains free on appeal.

WAN's resolution condemning Ch?vez noted that he has created a commission to regulate the content of news broadcasting -- and even threatened to use the military against news organizations.

Indeed, agents of the military intelligence organization, known by its Spanish initials DIM, are accused of beating up two journalists from Caracas daily El Universal -- reporter Felix Carmona and photographer Jorge Santos -- as well as their driver, Andr?s P?rez Cova. According to the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the three were on their way May 10 to cover a search at the home of an opposition politician when they were attacked by about 20 DIM agents, who slapped them and beat them with rifle butts while also threatening to shoot.

And the military is acting as the judge and jury in the case of television journalist Patricia Poleo, who in 2003 broadcast videotape allegedly showing Cuban military figures inside the offices of Venezuelan military headquarters. Poleo was hauled before a military tribunal May 28 to face charges of fomenting rebellion in the armed forces. Her lawyer said the threat of jail was intended to silence journalists and critics of the government, RSF reported.

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PAN-AM HIGHWAY

CUBA

Cuban journalist Normando Hern?ndez Gonz?lez, who is jailed at Kilo 5 1/2 Prison in western Pinar del R?o Province, began a hunger strike in May, New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported. Hern?ndez Gonz?lez, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence, is protesting his confinement, as a "prisoner of conscience," in the general population of common criminals, CPJ said. He is one of 29 journalists imprisoned for their work in Cuba.

ECUADOR

President Lucio Guti?rrez on May 16 signed into law the nation's first legislation guaranteeing public access to official information, IAPA reported. It noted that Ecuador has joined Peru, Panama, and Mexico among countries that have specific laws on access to information.

GRANADA

Leroy Noel, a magazine journalist who also writes for the online newspaper Caribbean Net News was arrested May 27 and held at police headquarters in St. George's for several hours while being questioned about his sources for his reporting about an alleged corruption case involving Prime Minister Keith Mitchell. RSF and CPJ condemned the arrest and noted an increase in intimidation against journalists in recent weeks. Noel received a death threat over his mobile phone on June 2, CPJ reported.

HONDURAS

Carlos Mauricio Flores, editor in chief of the Tegucigalpa daily El Heraldo, reached a settlement with a lawyer who had accused him and the paper of defamation, demanding the journalists reveal his sources and pay indemnification of $166,000. At the center of the dispute was an October 2003 article about alleged narcotics trafficking by leftist Colombian guerrillas that mentioned a client of the lawyer Gloria Maritza Garc?a Su?rez. The settlement required a published statement in which the paper did not retract its article, reveal sources or pay any money, the Honduran reporters organization the Committee for Free Expression (C-Libre) reported in May.

MEXICO

An American citizen accused of the March murder of Roberto Mora, editor of El Ma?ana in Nuevo Laredo, was stabbed to death in a Nuevo Laredo prison, where he had claimed he was tortured into confessing the murder. A Chicago Tribune article by Hugh Dellios reported Medina, 23, was stabbed 88 times by another prisoner. A U.S. State Department spokesman said the claims of torture were "credible," the Tribune reported. Mora's colleagues have said they doubt the official explanation that Medina, who was gay, killed the editor in a fit of jealousy because he suspected Mora was having an affair with his roommate Hiram Oliveros, who has been charged as an accessory in the murder.

Leodegario Aguilera, editor of the magazine Mundo Pol?tico, has disappeared, an apparent victim of kidnapping, his publishing company, Association Millennium Press Inc., reported in late May.

PARAGUAY

Mabel Rehnfeldt, investigations editor for the daily ABC Color and host of a daily radio program on Radio Primero de Marzo in Asuncion, was one of three journalists awarded the Courage in Journalism Award this year by the International Women's Media Federation. She was lauded for her coverage of government and police corruption.

PERU

An IAPA delegation visited Lima in late May to investigate complaints about government inaction in the handling of the case of journalist Albert Rivera Fern?ndez, who was murdered April 21. In a letter to the nation's attorney general, Nelly Calder?n, IAPA protested "an unusual silence regarding the case and lack of government action, and, as is known to the public, both the relatives of the victim as well as possible witnesses have been threatened." Rivera Fern?ndez was killed by point blank gunshots fired by two suspects who confronted him outside a radio station in Pucallpa, where he hosted a program called "Transparencia," in which he often criticized the actions of local officials.

Journalists invited to a press conference in Ilave in southeastern Peru were besieged by a mob of about 2,000, which threw stones at them and chased them for three kilometers, IPYS reported May 25. There were no serious injuries to the journalists, who included reporter Juan Rizo Patr?n and photographer Dante Piaggio of the daily El Comercio, Elena Cano and Daniel Contreras of the daily La Raz?n, and television reporters M?nica C?peda and Oscar Echevarr?a.