IAPA denounces aggravation of violations of freedom of expression in Venezuela

The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) denounced the resurgence of violations of freedom of expression in Venezuela and condemned the “digital media blocking” Y “Illegal use of personal data to harass journalists”.

The IAPA, based in Miami, charged against the blockade that access to three digital media has suffered since early Monday morning: Cocuyo Effect, Crónica Uno and EVTV Miami, the latter based in that Florida city.

The action, carried out by the CANTV (state) telecommunications companies and the private Movistar, Digitel, Supercable and Inter, operators of mobile and internet services, “would have responded to orders from the official (Venezuelan) National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel)”, pointed out the Yep it’s a statement.

“The dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro once again demonstrates its fixation on muzzling independent journalism“, He said Jorge Canahuatipresident of the SIP.

Canahuati stressed that the “international community cannot remain silent in the face of a terror regime that lives by trampling on the right to freedom of expression of its citizens.”

According to the monitoring organization VE Sin Filter, the Venezuelan regime not only blocks media websites not affiliated with the Government, but in recent years it has also blocked multimedia platforms, “streaming” and social networks.

These complaints also confirm the conclusions of a recent report by the organization Public Space, Privacy and Personal Data in Venezuela, an approach to current legislation and practice, released on January 28, International Data Protection Day.

Carlos Jornetpresident of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information of the Yep added that this new information “compels us to reiterate our commitment, support and solidarity with independent journalists and media outlets who have been suffering government persecution and reprisals for their work for more than twenty years”.

Canahuati and Jornet noted that the 2018 Salta Declaration on Principles of Freedom of Expression in the Digital Age establishes in point 7 that “The authorities must not use digital surveillance mechanisms to violate the freedoms and privacy of citizens”.

And point 5 of the Declaration recalls that “The blocking and filtering of content by state control in the digital space constitutes prior censorship in accordance with the provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights.”.

Among other arbitrary practices exercised from power, Espacio Público points out the surveillance and theft of information through the cloning of websites and social network pages, in addition to the “phishing” (identity fraud).

Retention of personal data

It also denounces the retention of personal data via cell phones or landlines using Israeli technological equipment and software to extract information.

The report highlights that illegal access to equipment, mostly mobile phones, “set up a growing practice” against journalists by police and military.

The latest resolution of Yep about Venezuela emphasizes that “The relentless persecution against media outlets and journalists, as well as the blockade of the few media outlets that still publish on the Internet, has almost completed the regime’s communication hegemony plan, similar to the Cuban model”.

Regarding the seizure of the facilities of the newspaper El Nacional on May 14, 2021, a measure that still prevails, the organization stated that “It will go down in the history of this century as one of the greatest abuses against freedom of the press in the Americas.”.

Venezuelain addition to Cuba Y Nicaraguaare the worst evaluated countries in terms of individual and social freedoms according to the Chapultepec Index 2021, a barometer with which the IAPA measures levels of freedom of the press and expression in 22 nations of the hemisphere.

The IAPA is a non-profit entity dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It is comprised of more than 1,300 publications from the Western Hemisphere.