Deconstructing the IAPA War on Venezuela

[Joanne98]

The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) holds it's biyearly meeting in Caracas this week - the first to be held in Venezuela in many years. But that doesn't mean that the organization hasn't been deeply involved in Venezuela. Since President Chavez took office in 1998, the organization has sent 10 delegations to the South American country and distributed dozens of press releases criticizing the Chavez administration for continually "violating press freedoms" and launching "attacks, repression, and assaults against the media." Last fall, the IAPA denounced Venezuela for the "largest number of press violations" during the six months prior.<1>

The IAPA stance on Venezuela could be understandable if it were balanced, researched and based on reality. But it is not. It is as polarized as the Venezuelan media, offering unconditional support for Venezuela's private media, while unable even to recognize the advances in support of Venezuela's community media. As Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) pointed out in a letter to the editor of the Editor & Publisher in January:

"By taking sides in Venezuelan politics, without investigating the facts of the situation, the IAPA discredits itself as an avowed advocate of press freedom."<2>
Nothing new. The IAPA stance against the Chavez government has remained consistent throughout the last decade. The Association even reached an ironic highpoint in the midst of the 2002 coup d'etat, which wrenched democratically-elected President Hugo Chavez from office for 48 hours. On April 12, 2002-the day after the assassination of twenty innocent Venezuelans, which precipitated Chavez's brief removal from office-the IAPA sent out a press release stating the following:

"Inter American Press Association President Robert J. Cox said today that political developments in Venezuela demonstrate to nations throughout the world that there can be no true democracy without free speech and press freedom... "This is a classic example for the new government headed by Pedro Carmona, which hopefully will turn things around, respect freedom of the press and encourage the independence of the judiciary, and thus, ensure restoration of true democracy," Cox added." (3)

As these words where being released to the press, community media in Venezuela was being sacked, the state-owned Venezolana de Televisión was occupied, and the private media (Venevision, Globovision, Telemundo, & RCTV) which had led the coup, were complacently refusing to report the news on the ground.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3308