The Venezuelan non-governmental organization (NGO) Espacio Público (EP) registered in August an increase in cases of violations of freedom of expression in Venezuela, mainly related to intimidation, with journalists being the main victims.
“In the eighth month of the year we registered 19 cases –the highest number since March– and 27 violations of the right to freedom of expression. Of the violations, at least 12 (44%) were acts of intimidation and nine of censorship.
EP underlined that journalists or reporters are among the victims in 11 casesaffecting the rest to other citizens.
The Venezuelan State continues to be the main perpetrator and responsible for 85% of the violations registered in August: nine by state institutions, five by security forces and five by public officials.
Focused on the promotion and defense of human rights, in particular freedom of expression and the right to information, the EP explained that August “began with restrictions on the work of the press in Táchira”, where an employee of the Central Hospital of San Cristóbal intimidated two journalists who were looking for information about the shortage of tuberculosis vaccines.
On the other hand, on August 4, Attorney General Tarek William Saab requested an arrest warrant against journalist Carla Angola for “instigating the commission of an assassination” as a result of a question to an interviewee.
Five days later, two women allegedly linked to the legal advice of the Municipal Housing Institute of the Municipality of Iribarren (Lara state), intimidated and photographed Yelitza Figueroa’s identity card, while the journalist was covering complaints by a group of merchants about alleged irregularities. at the Popular Economy Center of Bequito.
According to EP, on August 9, the journalist and owner of the newspaper El Vistazo, Nilsa Varela, filed a complaint for harassment, intimidation, media violence and psychological violence against mayors of El Tigre (Anzoátegui state).
The NGO also recorded, on August 15, the attack by an official from the Ministry of Tourism against a journalist from the television channel Globovisión de Mérida.
On August 22, unknown individuals tried to prevent journalists from the newspapers Crónica Uno, El Impulso and La Prensa de Lara from covering an assembly of workers of the state electricity company.
Furthermore, on August 24, the lawyer and director of the Coalition for Human Rights, Alonso Medina, was detained for at least two hours by immigration officials at the Maiquetía International Airport, north of Caracas.
Medina was informed that the Antiterrorist Division of the Scientific, Criminal and Criminal Investigations Corps (CICPC, former Judicial Technical Police) prohibited him from leaving the country. The move came after the lawyer released a report in June on torture in Venezuelan detention centers.
On August 27, the military forced journalist Luís de Jesus to delete a video in which he reported on the refusal of an employee of the Caracas Metro ticket office to sell him a ticket.
The EP also reports on the closure and vandalism of a radio station in Bolívar, blackouts “in internet access” in the states of Barinas, Carabobo, Cojedes, Táchira, Mérida Monágas, Portuguesa, Trujillo, Vargas and Miranda.
Source: Observadora
