Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was among the keynote speakers. Concomitantly, in Cádiz, Spain, the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB) held its 40th general assembly. Both international organizations lashed out at Venezuelan government onslaught on the media and their representatives which are critic of the government

November 8

"Chávez needs silence of the media," IAPA cautions
The government of President Hugo Chávez seeks to control the ideas of the media and impose silence, warned a report presented to the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA).

The report on freedom of expression in Venezuela, which was presented in the context of the 66th General Assembly of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), considered that the Venezuelan government has decided to use the seizure of companies as a means of social control and therefore it needs the silence of the media, AP reported.

"The bottom-line is that people has to depend on the State exclusively to find a job and have access to food," stated the report read over by David Natera, director of Venezuelan newspaper El Correo del Caroní and president of the Venezuelan Press Block (BPV), an organization that gathers the owners of Venezuela's major newspapers.

"In an attempt at achieving this perverse end, Chavez needs the silence of the media and journalists. Silence and fear that were typical of the sad, oppressed peoples of communist European countries, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet Union and today's Cuba under (Raul and Fidel) Castro," he reasoned.

Santos' new best friend
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos called his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez his "new best friend."

Santos said these words when he answered a question of one of the delegates attending the 66th Meeting of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), held in Mexico.

"Do you want me to talk to you about my new best friend? Santos queried. "Everyone knows that Chávez was not a member of my fan club and vice versa. We had the worst relationship. Two countries with such a large border, without diplomatic relations, without dialogue, without trade and facing the best risk in the world, a war, a term which is not in my dictionary," he said.

"Neither he expects me to think like him, nor do I expect him to think like me. There are big differences, but we did the right thing. We are on the right track and the region supports us," the Colombian president added.

Santos was the keynote speaker at the IAPA Meeting. In his speech, Santos stressed his commitment to respect and promote freedom of the press in the region.

November 9

IAPA asks for support of owners of Venezuelan channel
Alejandro Aguirre, the President of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) rebutted the attacks launched by Hugo Chávez's government on Venezuelan media and reporters and made special reference to the criminal cases against the owners of the private TV news channel Globovisión.

"We have made a broad request to different governments and international organizations to defend Guillermo Zuloaga and Nelson Mezerhane, two of the owners of Globovisión in Venezuela," Aguirre said during the opening session of the 66th General Assembly of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) held in Merida, Mexico.

The IAPA president recalled that on one opportunity a group of government supporters burst into a mid-year IAPA assembly held in Aruba.

IAB accuses the Venezuelan government of violating human rights
The International Association of Broadcasting (IAB) requested on Tuesday the international community to enforce "the legal and diplomatic instruments" to make the Venezuelan government restore the full enjoyment of Venezuelans' human rights, which, according to the international association, have been violated by current authorities.

The request was made by the international organization that includes more than 17,000 private radio and TV stations in the Americas, Asia and Europe, during its 40th General Assembly, held in Cádiz, Spain.

In its resolution, the IAB deplored that "democracy and the rule of law" are severely deteriorated in Venezuela. The IAB produced evidence of the "illegal shutdown" by the Venezuelan government of 32 privately owned radio stations in August 2009; the final cessation of RCTV broadcasting and the "constant attacks" against journalists and media executives such as the owners of TV channel Globovisión.

November 10

IAPA urges Venezuela to end harassment campaign
The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) closed on Tuesday its 66th General Assembly urging Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela to end the "harassment campaigns" against freedom of expression and demanding Mexico and Honduras to clarify the murders of journalists.

In its conclusions on Venezuela, the IAPA - which includes more than 1,200 media in the hemisphere - considered that the "reiterated and systematic violations of the Constitution, the rule of law, freedom of expression and the right to information" have taken away legitimacy from President Hugo Chávez's government, AFP reported.

"We are very concerned" by the attempts of the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela to "take control of independent media," by using "undemocratic tactics," Robert Rivard, chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, said.

Vargas Llosa: Attacks against Venezuelan journalists must be reported
Peruvian-Spanish author Mario Vargas Llosa said on Wednesday that the world should be "alarmed" by the setbacks for freedom of speech in countries like Cuba, Venezuela or Bolivia. He warned that this right will "always be threatened" by "all forms of power."

"We ought to report the attacks against independent Venezuelan journalists," Vargas Llosa said. He lamented that in other Latin American countries with governments "chosen in legitimate elections," freedom of expression has suffered a setback.

The winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature made these statements after receiving in Madrid the Award for the Defense of Freedom of Expression and Human Values granted by the International Association of Broadcasting.