Marianela Balbi (Bolívar, 1963) is a Venezuelan journalist who has experienced the entire process of the drift of Chavismo up close. Nominated for the Gabriel García Márquez Awards for a choral work on who the owners of the media in her country are and how they have identified with power, she is also the director of Ipys Venezuela, an NGO that works for press freedom. . He is in Spain this week to participate in the Latin American Conference on Investigative Journalism (Colpin) which is being held at the Casa América in Madrid until Saturday.
What does it mean to be a journalist in Venezuela today?
The July 28 elections are a before and after. We already came with an imposition of a censorship model that Chavismo calls “communicational hegemony”, a model very well designed for 25 years. But after the elections it has intensified to prevent coverage of the protests. There have been 13 journalists detained, which is a record number because in the worst moments we have had three.
Have journalists been arrested for publishing information?
Of the 13 detained, eight were detained for their work, for covering the protests after the elections, and proceedings have been opened against them related to the crime of association to commit a crime, which carries associated sentences of 13 to 20 years in prison without procedural guarantees. There are three arrests of journalists that are more linked to their political work, not journalism.
The other situation is the policy that is being practiced of canceling passports, which has affected the right to identity and to move freely. Right now it is scary to enter or leave Venezuela. There is a lot of repression, and the worst thing is that there is a lot of fear. The media is very co-opted by power, there are lists of banned journalists, topics that cannot be talked about…
Like which ones?
Any political analyst goes to a radio station and they tell him, well, the content has to be reviewed by the Board, and if not, it doesn’t appear. For example, during the electoral campaign, opposition candidates were interviewed on two television channels, not on any public television, and there were cases of dismissals and closures for going to cover an opposition campaign event. They have been undermining the freedom of information and journalists had to take shelter.
How have they protected themselves from that harassment scenario that you describe and that quantifies the latest Ipys report?
We have had to create “journalists” with artificial intelligence to break the news so that no one could be retaliated against. They are two not real figures and readers were informed of this. What was real is the content. Note that this has come from an alliance of 14 national media outlets and we have not wanted to say which outlets they are in case there is a temptation for them to tell us that we are cartelized or associating to commit crimes.
In addition, many journalists are not signing the works. Instead of its name the word “edition” appears. They also have to work collaboratively to be able to disseminate information to everyone, because restrictions have been imposed to access internet portals.
Which is it?
To enter the websites you must have a VPN connection (a paid private network not accessible to anyone). If you do not have access, you cannot read anything unofficial and that has been done with the complicity of the private telecommunications companies, which have received an order and comply with it, without judicial process involved. Online media is blocked. There is a too totalitarian take, from all areas: internet, censorship orders… It is coming together to an enormous fear and a great silence.
you were nominated for a journalistic work on how the business network of Venezuelan media was being dismantled and power was coming closer to them. In 2003 there were 90 newspapers in Venezuela and today there are 20. What has happened?
The turning point was 2013, because the State controlled all inputs of supplies, such as paper, ink or plates. He concentrated it in the Maneiro Corporation, a public structure that distributed these materials in a conditional manner. If you publish a headline that I don’t like, I won’t give you newsprint. Many regional media closed. In addition, there was a drop in advertising investment due to the economic crisis, but also due to the persecution of some advertisers if they advertised on certain sites. You go to a newsstand in Venezuela today and find practically no local media.
In this context, numerous journalism initiatives have emerged on the Internet. What is this new structure like today?
Digital natives come from the year 2014, it was the boom –coinciding with the paper closures–. Many censored journalists came from the conventional press. Online initiatives have emerged supported by international cooperation and the great challenge is how to sustain themselves today in Venezuela with the economic crisis and without a large market of advertisers. It is a model that is not clear, even though they are the ones who do real independent journalism. Journalists did take the step, but traditional businessmen did not. They sold, they closed, they wait for things to change… Without the intention of judging, but I think they have had a fearful and timid attitude in the face of this information conflict.
Could an interview with Edmundo González be published today in Venezuela or report on the illegitimacy of the elections that he has highlighted, for example, the carter center?
The press is limited to very institutional, very official information. For example, there have been important changes in the military world, and almost nothing was published. The only journalist who talks about this is outside Venezuela and publishes it in media in other countries, such as Argentina.
The Venezuelan community is already the fourth in Spain, after arrivals have multiplied in the last decade. Are journalists also leaving?
According to our latest calculations there are 300 outside of Venezuela, and it is a figure that I think falls short. We do know, from an in-depth survey we did, that 60% of those who leave do not work as journalists, because they have to live in exile, which means administrative precariousness with visas, economic… A circle is being generated worrying. That’s why many don’t leave or don’t want to leave.
How do you see the future for journalists there?
We are insisting on local investigation, rather than investigations that will overthrow governments. Issues that matter in your area, like why the water system isn’t working, for example. We are helping them with training, method, quality and rigor. There is a need to continue doing journalism, in any case, starting from the peripheral, from the bottom up. Venezuela still has a journalistic pulse.
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