Referring to recent claims that the Venezuelan government both wants to
control the media and take over service stations, Venezuela’s President
Chavez called the constant lies and distortions by the private media a
“desperate campaign.”
Since the inception of the oil
industry in the early twentieth century, Venezuela has had strong
cultural ties to the United States. President Hugo Chávez however has
sought to change this by cultivating a sense of cultural nationalism in
his country.
A careful and sober account of Venezuelan media that
focuses on the most basic and uncontroversial facts of what constitutes
the Venezuelan media today has been non-existent in mainstream U.S.
media. Such reporting
could present a more accurate picture of the actual situation of
freedom of expression in Venezuela.
In response to widely circulated international news reports that
Venezuela plans to spend $30 billion on Russian weapons and host
Russian military bases on its soil, President Hugo Chávez said
Wednesday that the reports are false and denounced the international
media’s consistent efforts to slander the Venezuelan government.
Traveling from the other world,
Federico Fellini is about to pay a visit to Venezuela's Villa del Cine to honor
and support President Hugo Chavez's efforts to launch a socialist film
renaissance for South America.
This week marked the anniversary of the controversial non-renewal of
the public broadcasting license of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) and
its on-air replacement with the state channel Venezuelan Social
Television (TVES). Opposition students used the occasion
for a protest.
Journalists, communications specialists, and other participants in the
Latin American Meeting against Media Terrorism in Caracas last weekend
demanded that political leaders in the region put the issue of media
terrorism on the agenda of all international forums and meetings in
which they participate.
By Michael Fox - Venezuelanalysis.com, Mar 28th 2008
The Inter- American Press Association (IAPA) holds it's biyearly meeting
in Caracas this week - the first to be held in Venezuela in many
years. But that doesn't mean that the organization hasn't been deeply
involved in Venezuela.
Venezuela's Communication and Information Minister, Andrés Izarra
donated sixty-nine sets of audio-visual equipment to community
television stations from around the country on Wednesday, with the
objective of promoting a National System of Popular and Alternative
Communication.
By Mark Weisbrot - Editor and Publisher, Jan 9th 2008
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) is not defending press freedom, but rather taking sides in a partisan struggle in a politically polarized country.
