A total of 49 media outlets have been closed by the Venezuelan government in 2017, the country’s main journalists’ union reported on Saturday in a protest against the departure of two emblematic radio stations.
We have registered the closure of 49 media outlets, most of them radio stations, including subscription television channels such as RCN and Caracol,”
said Marco Ruiz, general secretary of the National Union of Press Workers (SNTP).
A group of journalists protested in Caracas against the decision of the state-owned National Communications Commission (Conatel) to remove the Caracas-based stations 92.9 FM and Mágica 91.1 FM, with almost 30 years of history.
According to Ruiz, the government of Nicolás Maduro promotes
a systematic policy of cornering and suffocation of spaces for the exercise of free expression, the exercise of criticism and the exercise of dissent.”
We are going towards a much more advanced escalation in controlling opinion,”
warned the secretary general of the National College of Journalists (CNP), Delvalle Canelón.
On Wednesday, by arrangement of Conatel, the Colombian channels Caracol and RCN were excluded from the programming grid of the Venezuelan cable operators.
In February, the CNN en Español signal was removed due to Maduro’s accusation of “propaganda for war”, and in April the Colombian channel El Tiempo and the Argentinean Todo Noticias were also removed from the national grid.