The press and journalists were the most frequent victims (83%) of freedom of speech violations in Venezuela in November, a month in which 10 cases were reported for a total of 16 violations, half of them on the Internet.
The data was released on Tuesday by Espacio Público (EP), a Venezuelan non-governmental organization that promotes and defends human rights, in particular freedom of expression, with the aim of strengthening democracy and ensuring freedom, social justice and dignity for the population.
“Responsible for these violations of the fundamental right to seek, receive and transmit information were civil servants (30% of cases), security agencies (23%) and public institutions (23%),” explains the EP in its statement.
According to the document, the most common types of violations were intimidation (5 cases) and censorship (4), while threats, verbal harassment and administrative restrictions were recorded at least once.
The European Parliament says that on November 2, security officers and management of the Dr. Manuel Nunez Tovar hospital in the state of Monagas [leste do país]on orders from superiors, prevented journalists Lisbeth Martinez, Jefferson Sivira and José Ignacio Pinango from covering the protest at that location.
Journalists were called by hospital patients to cover a protest demanding better operating room conditions.
In the state of Trujillo, the pro-government governor Gerardo Márquez harassed and verbally threatened the journalist and director of Palpitar Trujillono, Andrés Briceño Sulbaran, for publishing a report on the collapse of a Christmas structure on an avenue in the city of Valera. .
“From now on, you have declared war on me (…) now they will know who I am,” is heard in an audio recording of a telephone conversation recorded by a journalist on November 6.
The journalist, according to the EP, was attacked by the governor via local radio and accused of being a “pamphleteer.”
In the state of Cojedes, the National Telecommunications Commission ordered the closure of FM radio class 98.7, allegedly on the orders of government officials, under the pretext of “terminating the broadcasting concession.”
On the other hand, Espacio Público reports that it has recorded that access to the El Carabobeño newspaper website was blocked by several private and public Internet operations, including mobile telephony.
Blocking, according to the VE Unfiltered Internet Observatory, is carried out at the level of domain name servers (DNS) and via the HTTPS protocol.
Back in November, the newspaper Oriente 24 was the target of a computer attack “presumably in retaliation for inconvenient publications by the local government of Cumana,” explains EP.
During the attack, site materials and backup copies were deleted.
EP also recorded an attack that “saturated” access to the Gran Aldea portal, temporarily blocking access to it.
The EP also recorded that on the night of November 22, members of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service (SEBIN, intelligence services) arbitrarily detained activist and leader of the opposition party Encuentro Ciudadano, Nelson Piñero, and forcibly removed him from his home. “for speaking out against the government” on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
A day later, SEBIN agents unsuccessfully attempted to infiltrate a trade union seminar organized by the NGO Provea in the state of Yaracuy.
The NGO also recorded an Internet outage lasting more than nine hours on November 20 in Barinas and Trujillo, as well as other states in the Venezuelan Andean region.
The next day, internet shutdowns affected other states, including Portuguesa.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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