Ecovillage Network UK
evnuk@gaia.org
Thu, 12 Dec 2002 12:54:05 +0000
--=======48C7113A======= Content-Type: text/plain; x-avg-checked=avg-ok-42D43365; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable http://www.narconews.com/Issue26/article557.html and http://www.narconews.com/Issue26/article559.html A People Defends its Democracy Against Media Power Venezuela Changes the Terms of the Global Debate By Maximilien Arvelaiz Professor, Narco News School of Authentic Journalism December 10, 2002 CARACAS, 1O:30 P.M., DECEMBER 9, 2002: Enough already with the lies: At the= =20 hour that I write you the people of Venezuela have left their homes to=20 rescue their petroleum industry and put an end to the lies of the=20 Venezuelan private-sector media. Thousands and thousands of Venezuelans=20 assemble peacefully in front of the headquarters of Globovision,=20 Venevision, RCTV, Televen and Meridiano TV in Caracas. And in the city of=20 Maracay, the people have taken TV5 and the daily El Arag=C3=BCe=C3=B1o,= calling=20 upon President Chavez 'to govern,' and referring to the mass media as=20 'media terrorists.' Other groups march now toward the offices of the=20 newspaper El Nacional. For more than a year the Venezuelan Media has substituted the opposition=20 political parties, fabricating an absolute matrix of opinion against the=20 democratic government of President Ch=C3=A1vez. We have warned that what is= in=20 play in Venezuela is the future of the majorities in a mediated democracy.= =20 There are few words to describe what we are living: a people, determined to= =20 defend its democracy and its Constitution against those who, last April,=20 promoted, participated in and approved of a coup d=E2=80=99etat. Since the= return=20 to power by the president they have not stopped conspiring, as they=20 demonstrated on Friday, December 6th with their broadcast of a fake video=20 (that was meant to link an assassin with the government). Freedom of speech and the press is not in danger. Cesar Gaviria, secretary= =20 general of the Organization of American States (OAS) demanded that the=20 government put an end to this popular insurrection. In previous days, the=20 OAS chief and former Colombian president never denounced the pro-coup=20 labors of the Venezuelan commercial media: a labor decorated by the=20 government of Spain which delivered the King of Spain Prize to Venevision=20 for its famous video from Llaguno Bridge last April. Spain, which chaired=20 the European Union last April, was one of the first governments to=20 recognize the fascist government of (April=E2=80=99s Dictator-for-a-Day)= Pedro=20 Carmona Estanga, also known as =E2=80=9CThe Brief One.=E2=80=9D The Venezuelan People, once again, are showing a lesson to the entire=20 world, defending their democracy from the pro-coup terrorism that exists=20 through the power of the Commercial Media. Maximilien Arvelaiz, a French citizen of Venezuelan descent, an advisor to= =20 the Venezuelan government on media and communications issues, is such a=20 shrewd analyst of the crisis of media in our era =E2=80=93 and the solutions= from=20 below to this problem imposed from above =E2=80=93 that we have named him as= a=20 distinguished professor of the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism. Bristol branch - National Union of Journalists 10-12 Picton Street Montpelier BRISTOL BS6 5QA http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/nuj_bristol/ http://www.gn.apc.org/media/nuj.html http://www.nuj.org.uk 0117 944 6219 --=======48C7113A=======--