Venezuelan media and the coup

Duncan Campbell, Guardian News Service, London

Traditionally, in a coup, the first thing taken over is the broadcasting service. It is part of coup lore that the airwaves need to be secure so that the correct version of events can be swiftly relayed to the public. But in the April 11 coup in Venezuela that for 48 hours removed President Hugo Chavez from power, there was no need for such a takeover: Most of the broadcast media owners were already on the side of the military and were happy to comply with their requests.

The coup is now being described by Chavez and his supporters as a media coup. They say the private television stations and newspapers not only helped to provoke it, but also played a major part while the coup was taking place.

In the weeks leading up to the coup, the broadcast media -- with the exception of the state-run, pro-Chavez Channel 8 -- had been increasingly hostile in their news coverage. "They gave up all pretense at balance and were systematically attacking the government on every issue," says sociologist Edgardo Lander of the Central University of Venezuela, who has been monitoring the events. The national press joined a general strike that was called in opposition to Chavez.

The five main TV channels gave advertising space to those who had called the anti-Chavez demonstration that led up to the coup. And on April 11, they gave extensive coverage to the march that ended in clashes and gunfire between anti-and pro-Chavez camps. When the military asked to announce that Chavez had resigned -- a resignation he later denied -- they were given the freedom of the airwaves.

However, when angry Chavez supporters went on to the streets in violent protests against the coup, eventually taking over the presidential palace, a blackout was imposed. American films and wildlife programs were beamed across the country, leaving viewers unaware that the coup had been reversed.

The following day, the newspapers did not publish. But the blackout could not include the international satellite stations, so the news was beamed back and gradually word spread of the coup's reversal. And among the targets of the pro-Chavez crowds were the newspaper and television offices.

Gustavo Cisneros, a media billionaire and fishing companion of George Bush senior, is seen as a key figure in the events. Cisneros, a Rupert Murdoch-like figure who was once a supporter of Chavez but is now a fierce opponent, has even been accused of playing a part in the coup itself, a charge he denies. He is close to Pedro Carmona, the economist who briefly replaced Chavez, and Carmona was in Cisneros' office as the coup took place. Another key player, the head of Globovision, Alberto Ravell, has apologized on television to viewers for not reporting events as they unfolded but said it had been too dangerous for his reporters to do so. He asked for forgiveness from "any television viewer who feels we failed them on that day".

One journalist in particular, however, has emerged as a key figure in the battle against censorship. Patricia Poleo of El Nuevo Diario has tried to present as full a picture as possible. Such was the appetite for unvarnished news that her reports were being photocopied and sold on street corners and by boys running between cars on the street.

Also circulated by email, her work has achieved prominence not least because she has been equally critical of both the people behind the coup and of Chavez's own heavy-handed tactics towards journalists -- including her -- who are deemed unfriendly. He has often named specific journalists he dislikes in his lengthy broadcasts to the nation and threatened to take away television stations' licenses. After his return to power, some anti-Chavez journalists went into hiding, saying that they feared for their lives.

Chavez often speaks of the "degenerate and anti-social media", suggesting they are mainly composed of "unpatriotic counter- revolutionaries". Earlier this year, his supporters blockaded the offices of El Nacional which has been hostile to him. Now he has just appointed Jesse Chacun, the president of Venezuela's telecommunications agency, to head an investigation into the behavior of the media leading up to the coup, a move condemned by the Inter American Press Association. But Chavez, as part of the conciliation process now under way, has specifically asked his supporters not to harass journalists, but to allow them to do their jobs.

Venezuela's media owners have argued that when they pulled their news coverage, they were merely trying to stop the situation from becoming further inflamed and to protect their reporters who had become the object of such hatred. These are very murky waters, however, particularly when the media are both covering the story and helping to create it.

Finally, it is worth recording that many Venezuelan journalists -- whatever their bosses were up to -- were courageously reporting from the streets. Jorge Tortoza, a 45-year-old photographer for Diario 2001, was shot in the face and killed during the fighting.