A spokesperson for the protesters said that “for the first time in more than a year,” VTV was paying attention to the opposition students’ movement, even if only because 1,000 students marched to the network’s studios in Caracas. The march to VTV came amid competing street demonstrations by opponents and supporters of President Hugo Chavez over his government’s decision to temporarily suspend Radio Caracas Television Internacional from the country’s cable...

A cable-television channel critical of President Hugo Chavez was removed from the air on Sunday for defying new government regulations requiring it to televise some of the socialist leader’s speeches. Venezuelan cable and satellite TV providers stopped transmitting Radio Caracas Television, an anti-Chavez channel known as RCTV, after it did not broadcast Mr Chavez’s speech on Saturday to a rally of political supporters. “They must comply with the law, and they cannot have...

Government harassment and criminal violence are harming press freedom and weakening democracy, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) concludes in a report presented at the closure of its 65th general assembly in Buenos Aires. IAPA expressed dismay over the excessive increase of violence against journalists. Sixteen reporters were killed in the last six months (eight in Mexico, three in Honduras, two each in Guatemala and Colombia and one in El Salvador), "the highest figure in...

Washington, DC - Raúl Castro's government has locked up scores of people for exercising their fundamental freedoms and allowed scores more political prisoners arrested during Fidel Castro's rule to languish in detention, Human Rights Watch . Rather than dismantle Cuba's repressive machinery, Raúl Castro has kept it firmly in place and fully active, the report says. The 123-page report, "," shows how the Raúl Castro government has relied in particular on the...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez specifically ordered Ortega Díaz and the Supreme Justice Tribunal to “comply with their duty” and called on officialdom to be “agile” in acting against media organizations that were “poisoning” the population. That was what they were there for, Chavez said, and if not “they should resign so that somebody with courage takes over.” CARACAS - Both sides in the clash between the government and...

Reporters Without Borders today voiced anger at the murder of journalist Vladimir Antuna García, found dead last evening after he was abducted on his way to work, pointing the finger of blame at state prosecutors who knew he was getting death threats but failed to protect him. The journalist, who worked as a security specialist on the daily El Tiempo de Durango, was found to have died of “asphyxia from strangulation” but his body also bore bullet wounds to the head and...

Cuban authorities should cease all attacks on human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and civic activists, Human Rights Watch said today. The international community should condemn attacks on those who peacefully exercise their basic rights to freedom of expression, opinion, and assembly in the strongest terms. On November 6, Cuba’s most prominent blogger, Yoani Sánchez, together with blogger Orlando Luís Pardo Lazo, were abducted by three men. Sánchez and...

Honduras's de facto government should immediately rescind an emergency decree that severely restricts press freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today. Honduran security forces seized the offices of Radio Globo and Cholusat Sur television early today and shut down their broadcasting, two days after the decree was issued. Both broadcasters have been openly supportive of deposed president Manuel Zelaya. The de facto government issued the decree on September 26, 2009, prohibiting all public...

Jesuit Father Ismael Moreno, S.J., director of Radio Progreso in El Progreso, Honduras has received several death threats in the past days. Fr. Ismael is a close friend of the Dominican Community and a well known Catholic leader in Honduras. Source:

Honduras' de facto government sent troops on Monday to shut down two media stations loyal to ousted President Manuel Zelaya, digging in to resist international pressure for his return to power. Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup on June 28, but he secretly returned from exile and sought refuge in the Brazilian embassy last Monday, sparking a tense standoff with the de facto civilian government that has promised to arrest him. Hundreds of soldiers and riot police have surrounded the...