Media Owners and Venezuelan Government Square Off (Again)

Editor and Owner of the Venezuelan daily El Nacional, Miguel Otero, warned this week that independent media in the country would "disappear" if the proposed constitutional reform is approved. He also accused the Venezuelan government of preventing the Inter-American Press Association from meeting in Caracas next March.
Editor and Owner of the Venezuelan daily El Nacional Miguel Otero at a press conference on Monday (Unión Radio)

Mérida, October 10, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Editor and
Owner of the Venezuelan daily El Nacional,
Miguel Otero, warned this week that independent media in the country would
"disappear" if the proposed constitutional reform is approved. He
also accused the Venezuelan government of preventing the Inter-American Press Association
from meeting in Caracas
next March. Venezuelan Communications Minister Willian Lara denied the
accusations and assured the constitutional reform will increase freedom of
expression.

Otero stated on Monday that the approval of the proposed constitutional reform
would be "a step toward the loss of private property," and
"independent media" in the country. He announced that he would be
denouncing the constitutional reform at the meeting of the Inter-American
Society of Press next week in Miami.

"With the constitutional reform independent media will disappear because
the changes are a step toward the loss of private property," said Otero at
a press conference on Monday. "With the new text property can be
expropriated without the need for a solid case. In that way it can be applied
to the media."

Otero added that the imposition of a socialist state in Venezuela would
force the media to transmit "socialist values." He warned that the
media would be subject to new forms of community organization and called this a
"grave situation" that would lead to the "disappearance of the
media, which leads to the disappearance of democracy."

Venezuelan Communications Minister Willian Lara denied Otero's allegations and
assured that the constitutional reform would increase press freedom in the
country since the "inclusion of popular power in the constitution
will reinforce the participation of the whole society in daily
news-making."

According to Lara the new changes planned in the constitutional reform will
contribute to "the creation and distribution of opinions on different
topics of public interest and the production of radio and television programs,
as well as internet sites, newspapers and magazines [that are] independent of
the state, and of the major economic groups."

Lara also denied Otero's charges concerning private property, stating that the
issue of collective interests over the interests of individuals is a concept
that goes back to the Venezuelan constitution of 1961, which also allowed for
the expropriation of private property in certain cases.

IAPA Accuses
Government of Hindering Annual Meeting

On Tuesday, the President of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA),
Rafael Molina, accused the Venezuelan government of "boycotting" the
organization's conference that was planned for Caracas in March of next year. The president
of the organization accused the government of "pressuring" hotels
after several of the main hotels of Caracas
refused to make reservations for the conference.

The executive director of the organization said that they would decide how to
respond to the supposed "boycott" on the part of the Venezuelan
government. Otero, who is a member of the IAPA Board of Directors, also
denounced the supposed "government pressures" against the conference
and said the March meeting "will have to take place in Aruba, Panama
or in some other place."

Lara denied the accusations and stated that the Venezuelan government does not
pressure any hotel chains to refuse reservations from the organization. The
Chavez government has repeatedly criticized the IAPA for being an
"organization of capitalist media owners" that have a strong adversity
to the Chavez government. Lara assured that their conclusions about freedom of
the press in Venezuela
"lack substance, validity, and pertinence."

"We don't care about the rhetoric of the IAPA. That is the best
demonstration that there is full freedom of expression in the country,"
said Lara.