It is not easy to get information in Venezuela. The government of Nicolás Maduro has increased its control of the press since July 28, when the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared him the winner of the presidential elections amid opposition accusations of fraud. This week, it particularly attacked the social network X, formerly Twitter, which it ordered to be blocked “for 10 days” for, it said, promoting hatred against the country. Before that, it had asked Venezuelans to delete WhatsApp from their phones, an encrypted and difficult-to-control application that is today one of the main ways of spreading unofficial news.
The government, however, is not having an easy time. Years of restrictions have activated the creativity of Venezuelans. Doing without state-controlled media requires effort. The main source of news today is WhatsApp. “That platform is not a medium in itself, but it is the one that people point to as their main source of information, hence Maduro’s attack on it,” says Correa, from Espacio Público. And he highlights the importance of it also being a network “that promotes the right to association and demonstration, what we call civic space.”
There is an explanation for why Maduro has asked Venezuelans to migrate to alternatives like Telegram instead of blocking WhatsApp. “The political cost is very high, because his followers also use that platform. It also has an operational cost. Many of the things the government does work through WhatsApp. That is why Maduro is looking for those who support him to be able to survive an eventual blockade by switching to another platform,” says Azpúrua.
Venezuelans have been using strategies to bypass official censorship for years, which during the time of Hugo Chavez was limited to radio and television channels and now affects digital media. Some 60 news sites are currently blocked in Venezuela, a list that also includes fact-checking sites and organizations working for press freedom.
More than 400 media outlets have closed in Venezuela over the past 20 years, according to the organization Public Space. Radio stations were the worst hit, with 285 stations. Today, 13 of the country’s 24 states no longer have media outlets that are not controlled by the government and some seven million people live in information deserts. “The traditional media ecosystem has been greatly restricted,” warns Carlos Correa, executive director of Espacio Público.
“There were about 100 regional newspapers in Venezuela, some of them very important. Now there are about 25 left and they do not come out every day or with the same circulation. Radio and television are regulated. And official pressure reduces the informative content in the media that are still open. The greatest official concern is for the international media, because they produce information that then circulates in the country,” he explains.
Journalists prosecuted
Since the elections, censorship has intensified. Four journalists have been prosecuted on charges of terrorism, which deserve even higher sentences than those for murder. And the government has been plugging the loopholes through which information has leaked as best it can, especially the pages where the opposition publishes the electoral records that, it claims, give victory to its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia.
The director of VE sin Filtro, a program of Conexión Segura y Libre, Andrés Azpúrua, highlights the official efforts to prevent these reports from reaching the population. “Clearly, there is an escalation,” he says. “We entered the electoral campaign with the vast majority of independent media on the internet censored. After the election result, every time we [la dirigente opositora María] Corina Machado published a new page to consult the minutes, but the Government blocked it. On Thursday Signal was blocked [una aplicación de mensajería más segura que WhatsApp] and X. It is a very serious escalation that goes beyond freedom of information,” says Azpúrua.
Correa is confident that the new restrictions on information will be overcome, in one way or another, by Venezuelans, as has happened in the past. “When the television channels were closed, we switched to cable, then to radio, and then to the networks. The opposition primary elections were not covered in the media and people turned to the networks. People have been learning,” he says. When the government closes a door, Venezuelans open a window.
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