North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?
US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty Anti-Empire >>
Promoting Human Rights in IrelandHuman Rights in Ireland >>
News Round-Up Thu Jul 31, 2025 00:51 | Richard Eldred A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Migration Adds 707,000 People to the Population of England and Wales in Just a YEAR ? The Second Lar... Wed Jul 30, 2025 19:00 | Richard Eldred 707,000 people have been added to the population of England and Wales in just one year ? 98% of them due to net migration ? making it the second-biggest rise in more than 75 years.
The post Migration Adds 707,000 People to the Population of England and Wales in Just a YEAR ? The Second Largest Jump Since 1945 appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Masking Our Schoolchildren Was Child Abuse ? A Rare Chance to Stop It Returning Wed Jul 30, 2025 17:00 | Dr Gary Sidley Thanks to the Declaration of Dumfries, parents now have a real shot at suing councils that unlawfully forced masks on their children ? and at making sure this form of child abuse never happens again, says Gary Sidley.
The post Masking Our Schoolchildren Was Child Abuse ? A Rare Chance to Stop It Returning appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Rotherham Police Sexually Abused Us Too, Say Five Grooming Victims Wed Jul 30, 2025 15:00 | Richard Eldred Just when you think the rape gang scandal can't get worse, five Rotherham victims say police officers abused them too ? claims currently being investigated by South Yorkshire Police itself, sparking fears of a whitewash.
The post Rotherham Police Sexually Abused Us Too, Say Five Grooming Victims appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Online Safety Act is a Censor?s Charter Wed Jul 30, 2025 13:00 | Andrew Doyle We were assured by Conservative and Labour politicians that the Online Safety Act was designed to protect children. In the last few days, its real, more sinister purpose has become, writes Andrew Doyle.
The post The Online Safety Act is a Censor?s Charter appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Celebrating the Alternative Media Movement in Venezuela
international |
arts and media |
other press
Friday July 06, 2012 13:33 by pat c

As Hugo Chavez faces another election the capitalist media has gone into overdrive. Its message is that dissent is crushed in Venezuela. Yet from below comes another meme: the story of alternative media. Full text at link.
Today we celebrate the national day of journalists in Venezuela. Because of this day, it’s worth remembering a phrase that was written in the streets of Argentina during the December 2001 crisis: “They piss on us and the press says it’s raining”. This aphorism captions the situation of the social media today. Readers are reading, listening, or watching the information they receive more and more carefully.
However, the people of Venezuela have gone beyond that. Thanks to legal, technological, technical, and formative support from the government of the president, Hugo Chavez, and because of the determination of citizens after 2000, a national system of community and alternative media started to be born. It’s a system which, even though it has a long way to go, it is a symbol of collective organisation and the satisfying of everybody’s right to communicate. So, today from 10am, alternative and community media will march from Venezuela Plaza to Llaguno bridge in support of collective organisation, grassroots communication, president Chavez’s project, and against media manipulation.
Vindicating the people’s struggles
The director of alternative and community media with the communications ministry, Reinaldo Escorcia, explained that “popular (grassroots) communication, a name we give to the non profit community and alternative media is what is happening in the hearts of the communities to promote social organisation and historical and cultural heritage in the geographic space where it’s being developed”.
The civil servant said that this type of communication aims to vindicate the struggles of the people and strengthen popular power. “A fundamental characteristic of this media is that they have a direct relationship with the people. Further, they promote the creation of the content with the listeners through regular community assemblies,” eh said.
The general coordinator of the Community Foundation Burate Arriba, in Bocono, Trujillo state, and communicator with Radio Libertad 99.3 FM in that area, Valentia Blanco, believes “popular communication came out of the need to give the communities a voice so taht they could practice their right to communicate... it was necessary to counter the private media which doesn’t transmit correct or opportune information”.
Before, they were persecuted
Escorcia considers the Regulation of Radio Difusion and Community Open Television for Public Service and Non Profit 2002 a landmark in popular communication: “That was the first tool that gave those types of media legality. From that moment popular communication began to grow”.
He said that, even though popular communication existed during the Fourth Republic governments, it was persecuted.
One of the founders of Catia TV, Leafar Guevara, agreed on that point: “Community media at that time was illegal”. She commented that that through such media the possibility to show the struggles and achievements of communities was opened up.
|