Chavez Moves to Criminalize the Media and Establish a “Thought Police” State

By Mario A. Flores
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

CARACAS, Venezuela – The Attorney General, Luisa Ortega Diaz, submitted the new Media Crimes Act to the National Assembly for approval today.

Ortega Diaz said that, “the Venezuelan state needs to regulate freedom of expression considering that the rights of all Venezuelans have limits.” Referring to freedom of expression, she added, “I require that such a right be restricted.”

Ortega Diaz went on to say that the state will not “limit” freedom of expression but “regulate it.” “There are no states where behavior is not regulated; freedom of expression is not being violated.”

The new piece of legislation is seen as Chavez’s latest attempt to rein in broadcasters he considers too critical of his regime. 

Venezuela’s National Press Association (CNP) warned that, if approved, the Media Crimes Act would have "terrible consequences” for everyone.

According to CNP’s press release, the bill would expose individuals to criminal penalties for making their opinions public. It would be an added tool Chavez’s regime could use to scare people and keep them silent.

“The law would increase the existing pressure against media that stray from the official line, it would promote persecution against newspapers and television stations and criminalize political dissent,” CNP says.
 
Among the specific acts criminalized by the proposed piece of legislation are acts or omissions that threaten social peace, the security and independence of the nation and the stability of state institutions.

In anticipation of the Attorney General’s presentation at the National Assembly today, Globovision, a privately-owned 24-hour news channel that has become a prime target of attack by the government, published a report of what it called “laws that will affect journalism in Venezuela” on its website.

The report said the government was studying proposals for as many as eight new laws or modifications of existing legislation. Among these were a reform of the Telecommunications Law, extending the Social Responsibility in Radio and Television Law to cable television stations, a proposed new law on the “exercise of journalism,” and an entirely new concept of “media crimes.”

The Executive Vice President of Globovision TV, Carlos Zuloaga, said at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C. think-tank, that the new law is dangerous because it is “too vague,” it “criminalizes expressions of opinion” and media executives could be prosecuted for broadcasting news that the government calls “false.”

Zuloaga added that under the proposed law, he could go to prison for up to four years for allowing his all-news channel to cover the developing story that Venezuela supplied the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla with weapons bought from Sweden, if Chavez says the claims are false.   

For more information, please see:

Globovision TV - Fiscal general: El Estado debe hacer frente “a nuevas formas de criminalidad" surgidas en los medios" – 30 July 2009

Latin American Herald Tribune - Chávez Seen Stepping Up Venezuela Media Clampdown - 29 July 2009

Globovision TV - CNP afirma que la Ley de Delitos Mediáticos "es el primer paso para la Policía del Pensamiento" - 30 July 2009

Watch Carlos Alberto Zuloaga, Executive Vice President of Globovision Televisión at the CATO Institute -  30 July 2009