TeleSUR Journalist Speaking in Venezuela Blames NATO for “up to 50,000” Deaths in Libya

“None of the private media belonging to the large transnational companies has reported on the large scale damage brought about by NATO,” said TeleSUR journalist Rolando Segura at the Thought Artillery vs Lie Factory conference held this week in Caracas.

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Mérida, September 7th 2011 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – “None of the private media belonging to the large transnational companies has reported on the large scale damage brought about by NATO,” said TeleSUR journalist Rolando Segura at the Thought Artillery vs Lie Factory conference held this week in Caracas.

The conference was organised to mark the second anniversary of the state-run national newspaper, the Correo del Orinoco, and was held in the Latin American Studies Centre Romulo Gallegos (CELARG) from 4-6 September.

Forums included ‘Breaking the media siege against the people of Libya’ and ‘The role of information technology and communication in the anti-hegemonic struggle and the securing of the truth’, and were presented by journalists, intellectuals, as well as national and international analysts. The conference was open to the public.

Minister for Communication and Information Andres Izarra said at the forum that such events were a “fundamental tool to give the Venezuelan people more food for their consciousness and knowledge”.

“These events are full of discussion about topics of freedom of expression, while other [private] newspapers celebrate their anniversary drinking whisky among dinosaurs,” Izarra said.

In the forum titled ‘Imperialist Aggression against the People: Libyan Format” economist Julio Escalona argued that “the invasion of Libya was prepared, the only thing that was lacking was the creation of political conditions that would support it.”

While Segura, who had just returned from Libya, said, “It’s said that just as a result of the NATO bombing, more than 1,800 people have died, and now they are already saying that as a result of the conflict as a whole, the total could be up to 50,000 people who have been massacred as a result of this invasion and aggression against Libya”.

It was worrying to Segura that “none of the private media belonging to the large transnational companies has reported on the large scale damage brought about by NATO, nor the massacres against the Libyan people”.

Jordan Rodriguez, another Telesur journalist who was based in Libya, described one situation where the mass media was reporting that troops loyal to Muammar al Gaddafi were killing civilians in the Green Square in Tripoli at that moment, but when his team arrived there “we didn’t see any of that.”

Rodriguez also described a British journalist who wrote about the supposed bombing and murders committed by Gaddafi troops, but, according to Rodriguez, he observed that the journalist “never left his hotel.”

Venezuelan journalist and United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) leader Vanessa Davies said that in contrast, in Venezuela a “model of communication to accompany the struggle for the liberation of the people is being constructed”.