Venezuela

Aa

79th IAPA General Assembly, November 9 - 12, 2023, Mexico City, Mexico

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WHEREAS the continued persecution, censorship, and repression by the regime resulted in a severe deterioration of the exercise of independent journalism

WHEREAS the massive blocking and intimidating attacks against national and foreign media websites by state and private service providers, without formal order or notifications, continue

WHEREAS, television and radio continue to be subject to the discretionary criteria of the regulatory body Conatel, with at least two radio stations being shut down every month, and print media continue to be shut down and forced to migrate to web platforms to survive

WHEREAS the regime maintains generalized harassment of journalists with 39 aggressions and attacks; 25 restrictions on the Internet, 22 episodes with stigmatizing speech, and 12 cases of restrictions on access to information

WHEREAS, threats, defamations, and discrediting of journalists and media persist through television programs hosted by President Nicolás Maduro and Diosdado Cabello

WHEREAS, within the framework of the new negotiation for the holding of opposition primary elections, it was agreed to release journalist Roland Carreño, imprisoned since 2020, and four other political prisoners

WHEREAS, the fifth principle of the Declaration of Chapultepec states: "Prior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press"

WHEREAS that there can be no genuine process of institutional openness without full freedom of the press, as just as there is no free journalism without the full presence of democracy, there is also no effective presence of democracy without free journalism.

THE 79th IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES

To condemn the systematic violation of freedom of expression and press freedom by the regime of Nicolás Maduro

To demand an end to the persecution of journalists and media, arbitrary detentions, attacks, and criminalization of independent journalistic activity

Call on the government to include in the negotiations with the opposition, as an essential element of the democratic recovery process, the return of the confiscated media to their owners, the reinstatement of the operating licenses of the suspended radio stations, and for Conatel to end the practice of blocking national and foreign media websites.

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