Free speech under threat in Venezuela

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 at 12:15 pm

Reuters reports:

Venezuela’s parliament approved tighter regulation of the internet on Monday in the latest of a package of laws to entrench President Hugo Chavez’s socialist “revolution” before a new Assembly is sworn in next month.

The bill prohibits online content attacking “good customs”, disrespecting public officials or inciting violence against the president.

Many of Venezuela’s lively news forums currently operate without a moderator or editor filtering out extremist or vulgar content.

But under the new regulations, all internet traffic is supposed to pass through a single, government-controlled access point.

The bill has stoked opposition fears about surveillance and censorship and concerned some free speech activists, who have drawn comparisons with how China and Cuba police the web.

Chavez is the new Castro. I doubt he will ever surrender power.

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Chavez set to rule for life

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 10:00 am

Like most “revolutionaries”, Hugo Chavez is looking set to rule Venezuela for life, after he managed to get voters to abolish term limits.  They had earlier rejected doing so, so he simply tried again until he could win.

Of course he had some advantages:

But opponents said the results were skewed by Chavez’ use of state resources to get out the vote, through a battery of state-run news media, pressure on two million public employees and frequent speeches which all television stations are required to air.

I wonder how long it will be until elections get replaced by referendums on whether he remains in office – ie no opposition parties.

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Venezuela slips further from democracy

Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 8:47 am

The Venezuela Government has banned 272 candidates from the upcoming election, on the grounds they are “suspected” of corruption.

By coincidence these include many key opponents of Chavez. Just another step in his attempts to slide away from democracy.

Of course this will not reduce the hero worship for Chavez from many on the left. What is that old saying – democracy is just a means of gaining power.

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Posted in International Politics | 22 Comments »