Fate of Tal Cual journalists in Venezuela following court ruling raises IAPA concern

Miami (September 24, 2014)—The Inter Press Association (IAPA) today described as disproportionate the use of law enforcement in Venezuela to locate and bring a columnist and executive of the newspaper Tal Cual into court to face a libel suit by the speaker of the National Assembly, stressing the urgency of the need to make defamation no longer a criminal offense. Judge Bárbara Gabriela César Siero of the Caracas 29th Control Tribunal, ordered the forced appearance in court of Francisco Layrisse, a Tal Cual executive, and Carlos Genatios, a columnist with that publication, against whom National Assembly Speaker Diosdado Cabello had filed a lawsuit in January claiming aggravated defamation, an offense punishable by two to four years imprisonment and fines under Article 442 of the Penal Code. The suit, which in addition names Teodoro Petkoff, Manuel Puyana and Juan Antonio Golía, also Tal Cual executives, was accepted in March by the judge, who ordered preliminary injunctions against the plaintiffs, prohibiting them from leaving the country and requiring them to appear before the court every week. Genatios and Layrisse have been outside of Venezuela for the past few months. The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, said, “It is excessive to use law enforcement to take to court two people being sued, certainly here we see another example of the government’s strategy of intimidating those who are not part of the group in power.” Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, expressed “the deep concern of the IAPA for the fate of these journalists.” He added that “the government of Venezuela is continuing with its maneuvers to neutralize the independent press, through intimidation and political, economic and legal asphyxiation, and the international media by blocking their signals in the country, as in the recent case of that of the Colombian network NTN24.” “Respect for the human right to have access to any information that comes from any source and tolerance and transparency, clearly do not form part of the Venezuelan government’s commitments to the country’s citizens,” Paolillo said. He also mentioned that just yesterday, in an IAPA webinar, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ newly named Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, Edison Lanza, said that among other points on his work agenda he will be giving priority to urging defamation to be made no longer a criminal offense. The lawsuit against Tal Cual results from an op-ed article by Genatios in which he attributed to National Assembly Speaker Cabello his having said that “anyone who does not like insecurity let him or her leave the country.” Cabello denied this and the newspaper issued a correction. The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.