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I am surprised about reading this at HN before than Venezuelan press. I hope there is not censorship at the level too.

by pmelendez 13y ago

asdfologist 13y ago
If they're censoring Twitter, don't you think they'd try to censor domestic media as well?
- pmelendez 13y ago
  They would have to shutdown the whole press (not that they haven't done that before), but the website is still there and still publishing opposition friendly news
goatslacker 13y ago
I found out via friends on social media which is quite surprising as well
rafaelm 13y ago
The press is being censored in a different way. The government is not giving them the dollars they need to buy paper for printing (there is a currency exchange control and no one can buy dollars without govt approval). There is no truly "free press" since they all depend on the government to give them the money for buying paper. Several regional newspapers have had to shut down already. You either tone down the stuff critical to the government or you will shut down sooner or later because of the lack of printing material. Right now the biggest newspapers in the country have reduced their issues to around 12 pages every day. They've had to print only the essential stuff (these twitter news will probably be printed tomorrow since this took place last night at around 1am).
jjrangel 13y ago
Television is heavily censored. While protesters are being attacked by paramilitary groups and government forces, TV stations show soap operas and cartoons. Also, the government often makes nationwide broadcasts that forces all channels to show the same pro-government content (a "cadena", which literally means "chain".) This effectively leaves the population misinformed at the most critical moments, the country only has social networks to find out about abuses from the regime. Some newspapers are still critical of the government, but I'm surprised to see many of them switch sides possibly because they've either been bought or blackmailed. You can feel self-censorship in some of them. Just like they silenced TV, they're trying to end freedom of speech in the press.

I am surprised about reading this at HN before than Venezuelan press. I hope there is not censorship at the level too.

asdfologist 13y ago

If they're censoring Twitter, don't you think they'd try to censor domestic media as well?

pmelendez 13y ago
They would have to shutdown the whole press (not that they haven't done that before), but the website is still there and still publishing opposition friendly news

goatslacker 13y ago

I found out via friends on social media which is quite surprising as well

rafaelm 13y ago

The press is being censored in a different way. The government is not giving them the dollars they need to buy paper for printing (there is a currency exchange control and no one can buy dollars without govt approval). There is no truly "free press" since they all depend on the government to give them the money for buying paper. Several regional newspapers have had to shut down already. You either tone down the stuff critical to the government or you will shut down sooner or later because of the lack of printing material. Right now the biggest newspapers in the country have reduced their issues to around 12 pages every day. They've had to print only the essential stuff (these twitter news will probably be printed tomorrow since this took place last night at around 1am).

jjrangel 13y ago

Television is heavily censored. While protesters are being attacked by paramilitary groups and government forces, TV stations show soap operas and cartoons. Also, the government often makes nationwide broadcasts that forces all channels to show the same pro-government content (a "cadena", which literally means "chain".) This effectively leaves the population misinformed at the most critical moments, the country only has social networks to find out about abuses from the regime. Some newspapers are still critical of the government, but I'm surprised to see many of them switch sides possibly because they've either been bought or blackmailed. You can feel self-censorship in some of them. Just like they silenced TV, they're trying to end freedom of speech in the press.