Reply #7: Talk radio is spewing hatred by the minute and is using ignorance and fear

[IndianaGreen]

Talk radio is spewing hatred by the minute and is using ignorance and fear to appeal to the darkest impulses in America's collective psychic. Their calls for violence mirror the hate mongering that preceded the assassination of Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The same thing is happening in Venezuela, except that the Bolivarian Revolution is trying to constraint the broadcast of rightwing hate speech without infringing on freedom of speech or of the press. We could use a Bolivarian Revolution in the USA!

Venezuelan National Assembly Discusses Combating Media Terrorism

August 6th 2009, by Tamara Pearson – Venezuelanalysis.com

Mérida, August 5th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - In response to private international and national media claims that Venezuela is discussing a media law which denies freedom of expression and punishes journalists, National Assembly members said that no such law proposal exists, only a discussion around how to combat the "media dictatorship" and "media terrorism."

The president of the media commission in the National Assembly, Manuel Villalba, said on Tuesday that a proposal for a law with 17 articles, as claimed by some media, doesn't exist and that rather, the Attorney General, Luisa Diaz, had presented ideas to the National Assembly, which are being debated, but that there is no consensus around her proposals.

"It's not official," Villalba said, explaining that no law had been formally presented or proposed. "All this just confirms that there are media owners who are systematically disseminating false opinions," he said.

Legislator Rosario Pacheco said that so far the draft that they have of the law considers media crime the publication of false, manipulative or distorted information that causes "harm to the interests of the state" or that threatens "public morale or mental health." The assembly has discussed a maximum penalty of four years prison.

Journalist Asalia Venegis told Venezuelan Television (VTV), "This law project... incorporates everything that is unequivocally expressed in the Law of Journalist Practice and the Code of Ethics, which establish a series of perspectives over what the treatment of the news and the role of the journalist should be."

Diaz also suggested the law should focus on protection for journalists who are coerced into putting their name to, or writing articles that they don't believe. Therefore, she said, rather than going against freedom of expression, the law should "promote safe and true freedom of expression that reaches everyone and doesn't attack the peace of the citizens."

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4694