Journalists in Venezuela live with difficulties in accessing information, increasing precariousness, lack of judicial protection, censorship and self-censorship, in an increasingly hostile environment towards women, professionals in the sector pointed out in statements to the Lusa news agency.
“We have many challenges, but the main and most difficult one is access to information. There is a policy of intentional opacity on the part of the power structure. Another problem is the very serious precariousness, which forces you to juggle and take care of yourself. many questions of survival in a country driven by urgency,” editor and university professor Gabriela Rojas told Agência Lusa.
Elementary problems, such as lack of water and food, still remain to be solved, which means that journalists have to work up to four jobs in order to survive.
“We have many problems with censorship and other forms of censorship, such as judicial harassment, media buying that led many to change editorial lines and now journalists censor themselves, because nobody wants to go to jail in a country where there is a lack of judicial protection,” he said, stressing that “many were forced to leave the country.
“The humanitarian crisis has affected women in different ways and has left an important void in the lives of professionals, who have had to migrate to informal jobs or become overloaded with work (…) Women journalists are in increasingly hostile environments in precarious situations. and more exposed to violence than men,” she reported.
Gabriela Rojas says that “in the Venezuelan case, the idea of the warrior woman has become a trap in which they are loaded with a lot of work and responsibilities, which makes them more precarious and more susceptible to poverty lines” and that “The teachers had to go out and make cakes, manicures and pedicures because they couldn’t live on their salary.”
He explained that there are problems, but many people are trying to solve them, that there is a discourse of serious crisis, of risks for democracy, but there is also a society that in the absence of the State provides solutions. .
“There is the very discouraging idea that the country is leaving, that there are 7 million Venezuelans abroad and that they have all emigrated, but here there are people who work, who get up every day, who struggle a lot,” he said. .
The journalist and consultant Yelitza Linares pointed out that “the hegemony of communication has been very well executed by the Government, which has applied very sophisticated strategies, such as not subsidizing the purchase of paper or ink to print newspapers, blocking news portals, or buying media”. .
He said that the journalists who did not agree with the editorial line left the big newspapers such as El Nacional, Ultimas Notícias or El Universal.
“In Venezuela there is a large ecosystem of digital ventures, but there are still many information deserts, especially in the regions (…) IPYS wants to train journalists, give them new skills to undertake and generate solutions,” he stressed. .
According to Yelitza Méndez, in Venezuela “you could only access official dollars (assigned by the executive) and thus the Government maintained control (…) but it also did so through advertising, because it expropriated the banks, which stopped publishing advertising”. .
“Compared to other countries where there is more machismo, we have a large number of women in the newsrooms, but not directing the media, because there is still greater control by men. However, we lead more and more projects. Ideally, there should be women and men, because that gives a more plural vision of the content,” she said.
According to this journalist “Venezuelan women in general live under pressure, endure it and know how to react to it,” including “many of the men, which is rooted in the culture.”
“We have to face it in a creative and empathetic way,” he defended.
Yelitza Méndez also said that “there are many things to do in Venezuela, because there is a lack of niche media that cover communities, regions” on different platforms.
“Unfortunately, the big media, such as El Universal and Ultimas Noticias, which had great penetration, are still controlled by the Government,” he stressed, noting that El Nacional and some regional newspapers continue to fight to report on other platforms.
Source: TSF
