Media suppression growing in Latin America, report publishers from Ecuador, Venezuela

Two publishers from Ecuador and Venezuela said Tuesday that there is suppression of the media in their countries and one warned that it is spreading into other Latin American nations “like an epidemic.”

Miguel Henrique Otera, owner and publisher of El Nacional in Venezuela, said that in a 14 year period there had been more than 1,400 assaults on his newspaper and staff. One person who was arrested — and identified by authorities as acting “spontaneously” — served a mere one hour in jail.

Otera and Carlos Perez Barriga, owner and publisher of El Universo in Ecuador,spoke at a National Press Club Newsmaker on “Threats to Press Freedom in Latin America.” The session was hosted by John M. Donnelly, chair of the Club's Freedom of the Press Committee, which sponsored the event. More than 40 persons attended.

Barriga said Ecuador had gone through seven presidents in recent years — “a rough time” for the oil-dependent nation. The country's comprehensive Communication Law was passed in 2013, and even though it was billed elsewhere as a protection of freedom of the press, Barriga said “that’s when the problems began.” The law allowed the government to sue broadcast and print media, including for such things as failing to print a story about a publlc event that the government felt should have been covered.

Otera said there was an increase in the number of state-owned radio and television stations in Venezuela that were confiscated by the government. “They are actually political stations giving the state’s messages to the people,” he said.

Also, he said, the government restricts the amount of newsprint that can be imported and sells official advertisements to only friendly media — indirect ways in which freedom of the press is suppressed. Official permits are required for more and more matters — “anything,” he said.

Journalists are threatened with slander campaigns "all the time,” Otera said. “Every day our society is more and more misinformed.”

Blanca Grubor, who identified herself as “a Venezuelan citizen,” in a spirited response during the q-and-a period, asked why the United States and the National Press Club had done nothing about these situations. Donnelly responded by pointing out that the Club was sponsoring this very session on the issue.

Said Donnelly after the event: “Across Latin America, governments on the left and the right are enacting laws to put a legal patina on old fashioned repression of press freedom, the publishers told us. The National Press Club wants governments in Venezuela, Ecuador and beyond to know that we see their actions for what they are: attempts to keep the public in the dark and to silence dissent.”