Venezuela to Host LatAm Conf. Against MEDIA TERRORISM

[magbana]

Venezuela to Host Latin American Meeting Against Media Terrorism
By James Suggett
Venezuelanalysis
March 24, 2008
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3297

Mérida, Venezuela - Andrés Izarra, the Venezuelan Minister of Communication and Information, announced that a Latin American Meeting against Media Terrorism will take place this coming weekend in Caracas, whose main theme will be the media war waged by domestic and foreign private media against the Venezuelan and other like-minded leftist governments in the region.

Over the course of the weekend, Caracas "will be converted into the world capital of the struggle against media terrorism," Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez proclaimed in support of the meeting Monday.

"It is necessary to discuss themes such as this," Chávez sustained, "since media terrorism utilizes the means of communication - radio, press, and television - to generate war, violence, fear and anxiety in our peoples."

The media war is also going on in Bolivia, Ecuador, and other countries whose governments promote social change, according to Izarra. As an example, he highlighted the efforts of the Bogotá-based daily El Tiempo and Spanish El País to link Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) during the conflict sparked by Colombian attacks on the FARC in Ecuadorian territory in early March.

Focusing on links with the FARC in order to distract from Colombia's violation of national sovereignty was "evidence of how they create media matrices based on lies, information taken out of context, and repeated by the principal media," Izarra outlined.

In addition, Izarra cited investigations conducted by his ministry that reveal that 78% of the mainstream European media coverage of Venezuela during 2007 was negative toward the Chávez administration. The minister also harshly denounced the "rabidly contrarian" Washington Post, which "emits editorials that are totally out of touch with reality and aligned with the real interests of the Bush administration."

Freddy Fernández, the president of the Bolivarian News Agency, commented that "Venezuela has a very rich experience with regard to media terrorism," having faced 10 years of "systematic campaigning" against the government by "almost all private media," which, he claimed, represent the interests of transnational corporations.

The meeting this weekend will be a "response" to all of this, Fernández said, especially to the actions of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which will hold a conference in Caracas this weekend as well. Fernández described IAPA as a "cartel" of corporate media interests that "has been the launching point for the strategy of domination that the United States pushes on the whole continent."

The IAPA, which was founded in the 1940s by the CIA and U.S. State Department, called Chávez "totalitarian" in its October 2007 Report on Press Freedom. It also claimed Chávez was "running over the constitution" and producing laws such as the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television in order to restrict media freedom. It also campaigned against Venezuela`s new constitution, which was approved by popular vote in 1999.

Victor Ego Ducrot, the press director for MERCOSUR, an organization which promotes South American economic integration, predicted in an article published last Wednesday that the IAPA, "true to its style... will surely convert its next meeting in the city of Caracas into a provocation against Venezuela."

Ducrot strongly discounted the IAPA's claims about dangers to media freedom in Argentina and Brazil, which are both members of MERCOSUR. He added that such "manipulation, disinformation, and systematic lying by the large media corporations, and the concentration of the media and technological resources in few transnational hands," are "concrete enemies" of right of citizens to have access to information.

President Chávez and Minister Izarra were formally invited to the IAPA conference this weekend, but it is unclear if they will attend.

Chávez invited all Venezuelans to attend the Latin American Meeting against Media Terrorism this weekend, while Izarra made a special call directly to students. Fernández emphasized that journalists from 14 Latin American countries including Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Ecuador will participate in the forum.

Some of the workshops presented will be titled "Masters of the Press," "Media Warfare in Latin America," "Venezuela Under Fire," "The People in the Struggle against Media Terrorism," and "Imperialism vs. Latin American Unity," according to the Ministry of Communication and Information website.

Another topic of discussion will be the behavior of Globovisión, a private opposition-run television channel that has been "plagued with cases of lack of ethics, lies, and offenses," Izarra said during his interview today.

Controversy has arisen in recent months over speculations that Globovisión could be sanctioned by the government for violating the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television.

In early February, 30 pro-Chávez organizations met in Caracas, to solicit the revocation of Globovisión's broadcast license. The National Assembly gave its backing to such civil society initiatives, and Cilia Flores, the President of the National Assembly, denounced that the channel was "creating terrorism."

In late February, Izarra clarified that the government "has no intention of closing down Globovisión... its rights are guaranteed in the constitution," and demanded that the channel "respect" President Chávez and "analyze the information they transmit day by day, so that they do not continue making the same errors."

The minister repeated today that Globovisión would not be shut down, but called the channel a "sewer" and said the state media outlets are "more attached to the truth and of higher quality" than the private media.

Moreover, he called for the social responsibility commission of the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) to be more active in enforcing the law, which the minister said aims to democratize the media by responding to consumers who "clamor for a more ethical and decent television."

Also today, Izarra opposed proposals by opposition parties as well as some supporters of Chávez to shut down the controversial pro-government talk show "La Hojilla" ("The Razor"), which is dedicated to critiquing the falsities in opposition media. The minister called the show a "tool for the media war," and said it was a good thing that opposition leaders were "irritated" by the show because that meant it was uncovering the truth.

[JohnnyCougar]

1. Good for Hugo

This is probably the most effective way to fight attempts to control Venezuela and that entire continent. The US's military resources will be tied up in Iraq, but that's not going to stop them from creating a PR war against Venezuela anytime soon.

[AlphaCentauri]

2. Unveiling the mask behind propaganda

:yourock:

[Judi Lynn]

3. Venezuela: IAPA is a product of the North American intelligence

Venezuela: IAPA is a product of the North American intelligence
Posted: 2008/03/28

Caracas, Mar 27. ABN.- “The Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which existed in the 40s, was kidnapped in the 50s by North American forces and, since then, it has become a North American intelligence product”.

The statements were made by the Canadian journalist Jean Guy-Allard, who will attend to the Latin American Meeting against Media terrorism, which will be carried out between March 27 and 30 at the Latin American Studies Center Rómulo Gallegos (CELARG, Spanish acronym).

Guy-Allard stressed that it was the Colonel Jules Dubois, from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who was the precursor of this kidnapping, and who became the mind of the IAPA until his death, 16 years later.

“Currently, the IAPA is formed by a big association of mass media owners, who are devoted to the interests of the North American Empire”, he emphasized.

Guy-Allard added that this society was placed later in Miami because this is the American extreme right-wing point of meeting, “formed by big terrorists and murderers like Luis Posada Carriles”.

In this regard, he stressed the level of misinformation and manipulation carried out by the IAPA, which could be compared with the information mechanism used by the North American State Department.

http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=586961

[Judi Lynn]

4. More on this propagandists' organization, IAPA:

Inter American Press Association
From SourceWatch

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) describes itself as "a non-profit organization dedicated to defending freedom of expression and of the press throughout the Americas." <1> Membership is largely comprised of media companies and media owners; IAPA represents "over 1300 newspapers and magazines". Although its charter may state that it defends "freedom of expression", the real purpose of the organization is defend the ownership and control of media operations, i.e., the freedom of the media company owners.

As the explanation by Fred Landis below indicates, IAPA has had a long and close relationship with the CIA and its affiliated organs – these were responsible for setting up the association in the first place. Beginning the mid-1990s, the CIA sought to keep a lower profile, and instead the US relationship came in the for of the National Endowment for Democracy and its many affiliated organizations. Since the mid-1990s, the NED and its affiliated groups perform the media coordination role performed by the CIA in the past – although some of the people involved are the same.<1>

Controversy
In July 2002, Al Giordano from Narco News sent an open letter to IAPA when "with colleagues in authentic journalism and independent media," they "launched an international dialogue about the role of "press freedom" organizations. We are focusing on the three such organizations with the largest budgets: the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and... Miami-based Inter-American Press Association." The letter went on to note that: "Your organization is nothing more than a lobbying group for the owners of a commercial industry - newspapers - and the IAPA's cynical use of the "press freedom" issue is only wielded to expand the economic and political powers of the owners of commercial media, abusive powers that are increasingly in conflict with the free expression rights of working journalists and of a majority of members of the public." <2>

In 2006 the Venezuelan "government accused the Inter American Press Association of “disinformation to attack Venezuela”." <3>

Murky Chapters
IAPA becomes a useful tool when a Latin American country undergoes democratic or revolutionary change. Fred Landis describes how newspapers in the target country become propaganda instruments manipulated by the CIA and its affiliated organs:

IAPA stands ready, with all its hundreds of cooperating member newspapers, to scream "Marxist Threat to Free Press" if any attempt is made by the target government to restrict the flow of hostile propaganda. In 1969 the CIA had five agents working as media executives at El Mercurio, all of whom in subsequent years were elevated to the Board of Directors of IAPA. The owner of El Mercurio was made head of the Freedom of the Press committee, and later President. IAPA bylaws permitted only working owners to be members, so the bylaws were changed to accommodate him. Then many of the CIA operatives at Copley News Service were made members of the Board of Directors of IAPA. Immediately before the campaign to oust socialist Prime Minister Michael Manley, Jamaica Daily Gleaner publisher Oliver Clarke was added to the Executive Committee; he has now been promoted to Treasurer. At the last annual convention in San Diego, IAPA elevated Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, Jr., to its Board of Directors. At that time he was not an editor or publisher of La Prensa, but the CIA needed him because he had the same name as his martyred father. After his elevation he was belatedly made Assistant Director of La Prensa, and when he was recently added to the IAPA Executive Committee, La Prensa began carrying the IAPA membership credential in its masthead. At the last IAPA meeting in Rio de Janeiro in October, speeches, including those by Vice-President Bush, were dominated by alarmist references to the situation of the press in Nicaragua.

Obviously the owner of a conservative newspaper in Latin America does not need CIA money to be against a socialist government. The assistance provided by the CIA is primarily technical, not financial. Without CIA help, the local newspaper's opposition would be openly stated on the editorial page in language reflecting the ideology of the local conservative elite. That would be ideological warfare, not psychological warfare. But the CIA is not concerned, in these operations, with local ideology; it is concentrating on the use of its bag of technological dirty tricks. One of these tricks is disinformation.<2>
(snip/)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Inter_American_Press_Association

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reference to Augustin Edwards, of the same organization, IAPA, who ran the propaganda outlets in Chile with the heavy investment of Richard Nixon and the CIA, and continued to get US financing for years after:

52. Re:
... military coup of 11 September 1973. Augustin Edwards (owner of the country's leading newspaper, El Mercurio, and tactfully described as a Chilean Rupert Murdoch) had already been lobbying influential Americans to argue for 'aggressive US intervention' to remove Allende, and eventually met with Nixon and Kissinger to further press his case. He succeeded and the US did indeed intervene. El Mercurio (bankrolled to the tune of millions of dollars by the CIA) began a lengthy anti-Allende campaign, encouraging dissent and, just weeks before the coup, running ...
(snip)

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:L0VfAxR2ROcJ:www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/intro/search.cgi%3Fzoom_query%3Dnixon%26zoom_page%3D6%26zoom_per_page%3D10%26zoom_and%3D1%26zoom_sort%3D0+Augustin+Edwards+%2B+El+Mercurio+%2B+Richard+Nixon+%2B+CIA+%2B+Allende&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

~~~~~~~~~~~~
From an interview:

The Nixon administration, already embroiled in proxy battles with the Soviet Union around the world, decided it couldn't countenance the newly-elected socialist government of Salvador Allende in Chile, so the CIA helped engineer his ouster in favor of a military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet. Peter Kornbluh is a senior analyst at the National Security Archive. In this month's Columbia Journalism Review he documents how Nixon and Kissinger empowered Chile's leading media mogul, Augustin Edwards, to lead the charge against Allende. Now a group of editors, human rights lawyers and journalism students are accusing Edwards of violating the Code of Ethics of the Academy of Chilean Journalists and are fighting at the very least to have him expelled from the Press Guild.
(snip)

http://www.onthemedia.org/yore/transcripts/transcripts_091203_chile.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Covert Action in Chile 1970-1973
Put "Augustin Edwards in a search, read under "Track II."
Can't be copy and pasted:
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~simpson/Hist%20725%20Summer%202006/Chile%20and%20Covert%20Intervention%201970-1973.pdf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Criticism
El Mercurio has been criticized for having received funds from the CIA in the early 1970s to undermine the Socialist government of Salvador Allende through continuous anti-Allende propaganda and for "setting the stage for the military coup of 11 September 1973" (Kornbluh, 2003), a fact the newspaper has always denied in spite of declassified documents which detail US interventions.
(snip)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mercurio

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~snip~
Marroquin’s IAPA found little difficulty in muzzling itself when discussing the foibles of the regional media during the period of military rule, when they served little better than boot lickers to an array of military regimes.
(snip)

Inherently mainstream hemispheric organizations like the IAPA, which are dedicated to the prosperity of private conglomerates even more than press freedom issues, almost always work to aggressively repeal ‘insult’ laws, which are still residually found in some of the region’s constitutions or regulations. They also attempt to provide their members with a maximum amount of space in which to operate, for good or ill, and often strive to maintain a crusading habitat in which they can criticize and assess leftist governments while serving up their own version of the nation’s political shortcomings. Unfortunately, neither the Latin American media nor the IAPA have particularly noteworthy histories, having accommodated themselves quite handsomely during the era of military dictatorships in Chile, Argentina, Guatemala and El Salvador, when fearless reporters were being mercilessly gunned down by rightwing death-squads.
(snip)

http://www.coha.org/2007/05/29/coha-to-ecuador%E2%80%99s-rafael-correa-tread-carefully-so-your-detractors-do-not-have-an-easy-target /

[magbana]

5. Excellent, excellent research - thanks Judi!