From the Department of Won’t Take No For an Answer:
CHICAGO Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government is trying to impose by decree measures against freedoms of press and expression that voters rejected in a referendum last December, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) declared as it ended its mid-year meeting in Caracas.
“The changes and laws that President Chavez seeks to impose against the will of the people as expressed on December 2, 2007, are clearly aimed at preventing the free expression of ideas and opinions, taking control of cultural organizations and forms of cultural expression, and subordinating the Venezuelan educational system to dogmatism and universally failed teaching methods clearly inspired in totalitarianism,” the Miami-based press freedom group said in a resolution adopted at the conclusion of its three-day meeting.
IAPA specifically condemned the “illegal seizure” of Radio Caracas Television’s (RCTV) broadcast equipment after the network’s broadcast license was not renewed; the governments “repeated” refusal to disclose public information to news organizations; its legal “harassment” of the independent Glob vision television news channel; and its “discriminatory” placement of government advertising, typically an important source of income for Latin American newspapers.






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