WHEREAS, 115 independent media outlets have disappeared under the regime of Nicolás Maduro between 2013 and 2018 - according to the National Union of Press Workers;
WHEREAS, on May 14, the Armed Forces seized the facilities of El Nacional newspaper, following a ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice which ordered the newspaper to pay compensation of US$13 million to the Chavista leader Diosdado Cabello - thus concluding a long process against the newspaper, accused of reproducing statements published in more than 80 media outlets and news agencies;
WHEREAS, the relentless persecution against the media and journalists, as well as the blocking of the few media outlets that still publish on the Internet, has almost achieved the regime's plan of communicational hegemony - similar to the Cuban model;
WHEREAS, Principles 4 and 5 of the Chapultepec Declaration state that: "coercion, intimidation, unjust imprisonment of journalists, physical destruction of the media, violence of any kind, and impunity for perpetrators severely restrict freedom of expression and of the press" as do "restrictions on the circulation of the media or on the dissemination of their messages, the arbitrary imposition of information, the creation of obstacles to the free flow of information and limitations on the free exercise and mobilization of journalists."
THE 77th IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES
To call on the government of Nicolás Maduro to respect the independent Venezuelan press - and to put an end to the attacks and harassment against the media and journalists;
To demand that the government stop using the judicial system and the armed forces to attack the media - and that the facilities of the unjustly seized El Nacional newspaper be returned to their owners;
To reject the plans of the Venezuelan government to impose a communicational hegemony, in which the work of reporting news would only be possible for the official media outlets - to the detriment of the citizens' right to receive information.
