New National Progressive Newspaper Goes to Print in Venezuela
Mérida,
September 2nd 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – On Sunday the first edition of the new
progressive national newspaper, the Correo del Orinoco (Orinoco Post) came out.
The colour, tabloid paper of 23 pages will be daily and cost 1 bolivar (US$
0.45), and aim to provide realistic coverage of the processes of change in Venezuela, said
its editor, Vanessa Davies.
The
newspaper is named after the Orinoco Post created by liberation fighter Simon
Bolivar in 1818, which had a similar aim of promoting independence and countering
the news manipulations emitted by occupying Spain.
The
sections of the paper include news of the day, opinion, politics, parliamentary
debate, economy, popular power, science, interviews, international news,
culture, regional news, sports, and a legal section, and will be on sale in
news kiosks across the country.
In
his opinion piece in the newspaper, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said the
paper should counter "media terrorism" and "should be guided by the principle
that the liberator Simon Bolivar expressed in the first edition of the Orinoco
post, that is, ‘We are free, we write in a free country, and do not intend to
deceive the public.'"
Journalist
and university lecturer Arlenin Aguillon said about the new paper, "We promise
before the country and the world that we won't deceive the people. The opposition
media needs to lie and manipulate, because they have to hide the large projects
of the government, the [social] missions, all the policies of inclusion."
According
to Vanessa Davies, a leader of the United Socialist Party (PSUV) and editor of the
newspaper, it is not a government paper. Davies characterised it as "a
progressive daily committed to the country and the Venezuelan and Latin
American revolution, whose main objective is the defence of the people and a
realistic vision of the process of change in the country."
Davies
said the newspaper would circulate soon in Colombia and would also eventually
be published in other languages.