Abuses should have provoked a condemnatory response from the Human Rights Watch

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electonic News Posted: Sunday, May 25, 2003 By: David Cabrera

Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 23:09:51 -0700 (PDT) From: David Cabrera davidckr@yahoo.com To: Editor@vheadline.com Subject: open letter to HRW

Dear Editor: An open letter to Human Rights Watch

I feel I ought to contribute a little to the Human Rights Watch reports on threats to freedom of speech in Venezuela ... which of course have been a routine in our country, not as a consequence of a totalitarian government, but by an opposition that has had the broadest freedoms to criticize and even direct obscenities through any available medium that one can think of in any country in the world.

It is interesting to closely analyze the last paragraph of HRW's last report, where you quote the Executive Director for the Americas Division of HRW, Jose Miguel Vivanco: "it is crucial that his government take steps to end impunity for crimes against journalists and cease its efforts to muzzle private television stations,” referring to Chavez's professed willingness to conciliate with his political adversaries.

However, despite Mr. Vivanco remarks about the constant private media abuse ... such as non-stop months-long anti-government publicity ... he stopped short of denouncing these acts and regarding them as a threat to the freedom of  expression, and often limited himself to cite examples that are condemnatory only of the government. By this, I am not suggesting that HRW should not highlight government's interference with the right to inform but, instead, my expectations are that Mr. Vivanco ... as well as any other assigned correspondent of the HRW organization ... takes matter seriously when the violations come from the wealthy owners of the private media themselves.

For instance, there have been some cases where the El Nacional fired journalists because they failed to follow a preferred editorial line imposed by the bosses. Two of them are Vanessa Davies and Reynaldo Bolivar ... the former now works for the State-owned TV (VTV) and the other does it independently.

With regard to editorial lines, an important fact that has been omitted in your reports was the decision of the former manager of news-daily broadcasts at RCTV station, Andres Izarra, to quit the station on the grounds that information about the days during and after last year's coup was deliberately being censored by the station's top managers.

In my opinion, these abuses should have provoked a condemnatory response from the Human Rights Watch organization, however, they were not mentioned in any of the HRW reports.

Additionally, I believe that your personnel stationed in Venezuela should go deeply into investigating many other violations that have been committed, not solely by Chavez, but by the opposition as well.

One of them would be a case dealing with jailed journalists. Chavez, as the organization has admitted before, has not jailed any journalist or revoked any license so far from any radio or TV station ... in spite of the latter's almost unimaginable virulence against the government. However, a community journalist was harshly beaten and jailed on orders from Carmona's associates following last year's coup. Nicolas Rivera, a staff member at Radio Perola ... an alternative radio station in Caricuao, western-Caracas ... was held in prison with two other individuals without formal charges for almost a year.

Nicolas Rivera's was the only such case regarding jailed journalists during the last four years that I am aware of, yet, it failed to make it into the organization's report highlighting abuses of journalists.

With reference to harassment of journalists, HRW's last report cites an extract from a 26-pages documentary named "Caught in the Crossfire," pointing out that "Freedom of Expression in Venezuela, describes how journalists face physical violence and threats, often by fervent civilian supporters of President Hugo Chavez."

But what about journalists and other pro-government individuals facing "physical violence and threats" by "fervent civilians" who support the opposition?

There are certainly substantial witnessed and documented accounts to corroborate the latter claim. Take for instance the savage beating that a freelance cameraman received from "fervent civilians" of the opposition during an anti-Castro rally close to the Cuban embassy last month ... the attack was totally unprovoked, as was seen on Globovision coverage, and even the supposedly pro-Chavez National Guard at the scene did not do much to stop the "pacific demonstrators" (as the corporate media likes to call anti-chavistas) from continuing beating a lone man with a camera.

And what about the reported sporadic shootings toward the state-owned TV station in Los Ruices? Why hasn't HRW investigated this?

Is anybody in the organization aware that one or more persons could have been injured, and even killed by this form of harassment?

It seems to me that the only cases involving violence that are worth reporting about are the ones when pro-government demonstrators throw stones at the headquarters of an opposition newspaper, whereas the ones regarding "fervent civilians" throwing glass bottles at VTV personnel from outside the station do not awaken concern at all from Jose Vivanco or any HRW representative.

I still believe that the HRW organization has the potential required to present a balanced account of events for the public, especially the international one.

I would also like to make it clear that it is not my intent to oppose any attempt by the organization to expose any governmental action that may threaten the freedom of speech, but instead to motivate an awareness with regard to continuous abuses by the private press, television and radio disguised as "freedom of expression."

I am also familiar with HRW reports on other countries, acknowledging that even its correspondents often take on dangerous tasks in order to reveal torture incidents in Uzbekistan or selective assassinations in Colombia.

I am hopeful that HRW eventually will pursue violations on both conflicting sides ... in this case the Venezuelan government and opposition ... and I am confident that, after you have properly reviewed the records, you will conclude that it is not Chavez who is the sole threat to freedom of expression in my country ... but you will easily realize that it would instead be the opposition that best fitted the protagonist role for your next "Caught in the Crossfire" documentary.

David Cabrera davidckr@yahoo.com Caracas, Venezuela