The law provides for freedom of speech and press; however, the combination of laws and regulations governing libel and media content, as well as legal harassment and physical intimidation of individuals and the media, resulted in practical limitations on these freedoms. National and international groups, such as Reporters without Borders, the Inter American Press Association, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, condemned government efforts throughout the year to restrict press freedom and create a climate of fear and self-censorship.

The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reported that the government committed 200 violations of freedom of expression during the year. Transparency Venezuela reported that during the year the judicial branch ruled against all seven pending cases of violations of freedom of expression submitted by the Pro Access Coalition, a group composed of NGOs advocating the right to access public information.

Freedom of Speech: The law makes insulting the president punishable by six to 30 months in prison without bail, with lesser penalties for insulting lower-ranking officials. Comments exposing another person to public contempt or hatred are punishable by one-to-three-year prison sentences and fines starting at Bs 55 ($13).

The government took reprisals against individuals who publicly expressed criticism of the president or government policy. For example, on February 24, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) employee Egilda Gomez said she had been threatened with dismissal because of the political views of her husband, journalist Vladimir Villegas, a former government supporter turned critic. On February 28, the PDVSA fired Gomez following the February 28 publication of her husband’s opinion in the opposition-oriented daily newspaper El Nacional in which he accused the government of “labor harassment, political persecution, witch hunts, and the sowing of fear as daily elements of ‘revolutionary’ management.” According to Villegas, Gomez had been subject to harassment during the previous two years in “political retaliation as a consequence of my positions critical of the government of President Hugo Chavez Frias.” In response to Gomez’s firing, on March 7, Wills Rangel, the president of the government-affiliated Unitary Federation of Oil Workers, publicly claimed that “whoever wants to advocate against our industry or against the commander president, we are going to fight.”

In mid-March the national government threatened two governors for publicly raising concerns over the quality of drinking water in their states. On March 12, in an interview on opposition-oriented Globovision television, Jose Gregorio Briceno, Monagas State governor and then member of President Chavez’s PSUV party, criticized the national government’s response to the February 4 oil spill in Monagas, which left residents of the state without running water for more than a month. He publicly opposed the government’s plan to reopen a pumping station as long as the river water remained contaminated. On March 14, then vice president Elias Jaua accused Briceno of repeated ethical violations and expelled him from the PSUV. President Chavez said that “Briceno got what was coming to him” and called him a “traitor to the people.” On March 14, opposition Carabobo State Governor Henrique Salas Feo denounced the pumping of sewage into potable water pipes serving Caracas and Aragua, Carabobo, Miranda states. He accused the government-managed water utility Hidrocentro of “slowly poisoning three million inhabitants of Carabobo and Aragua by repumping sewage to the population.” On March 16, President Chavez warned Salas Feo against making statements that “border on the criminal.”

On August 9, the National Assembly postponed an inquiry into the corruption allegations against the wife of opposition deputy Julio Montoya. In October 2011 the National Assembly designated a subcommission to investigate alleged corruption related to a 2006 construction contract by Montoya and his wife. Many observers considered the investigation to be in retaliation for Montoya’s criticism of the government’s plans to repatriate its gold reserves abroad and his charges that senior government and military officials were linked to the activities of alleged narcotics trafficker Walid Makled.

Freedom of Press: The law provides that inaccurate reporting that disturbs the public peace is punishable by prison terms of two to five years. The requirement that media disseminate only “true” information was undefined and open to politically motivated interpretation. As of August 20, the IPYS reported 194 violations of freedom of the press.

The reformed Law of Social Responsibility for Radio and Television (RESORTE) and the amended Organic Law for Telecommunications, which went into effect in 2010, prohibit all media from disseminating messages that incite or promote hate or intolerance for religious, political, gender-related, racial, or xenophobic reasons; incite, promote, or condone criminal acts; constitute war propaganda; foment anxiety in the population or affect public order; do not recognize legitimate government authorities; incite homicide; or incite or promote disobedience to the established legal order. Penalties range from fines to the revocation of licenses.

The law declares telecommunications a “public interest service,” thereby giving the state greater authority to regulate the content and structure of the radio, television, and audiovisual production sectors. The law provides that the government can suspend or revoke licenses when it judges such action necessary to the interests of the nation, public order, or security. The telecommunications law empowers the government to impose heavy fines and cancel broadcasts for violations of its norms, and the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) oversees the law’s application.

On November 21, according to press reports, progovernment radicals attacked Radio Libertad FM, funded by the Merida State Catholic Archdiocese, and destroyed the radio tower and transmission system. According to media sources, the attackers were motivated by the station’s interview of former PSUV governor and then gubernatorial candidate Florencio Porras who was running against President Chavez’s handpicked gubernatorial candidate, Alexis Ramirez. The Venezuelan National Guard was investigating the incident at year’s end.

On March 6, the Supreme Court rejected privately owned cable news station Globovision’s request for an injunction against the payment of the Bs 9.3 million (approximately $2 million) fine imposed by CONATEL for its reporting of the June-July 2011 El Rodeo prison riot. Globovision said the station would not pay the fine until it exhausted all its legal appeals. On June 28, the Supreme Court ordered the seizure of approximately Bs 24 million (approximately $5.6 million) in Globovision’s assets pending payment of the fine. On June 19, Globovision paid the fine “under protest” after the TSJ issued an executive decision without allowing Globovision to exhaust its legal appeals. According to Globovision, it feared the potential impact of the seizure on its ability to continue operating. On July 3, the court suspended the embargo. CONATEL had six other administrative investigations pending against Globovision at year’s end.

The law requires that practicing journalists have journalism degrees and be members of the National College of Journalists, and it prescribes jail terms of three to six months for those practicing illegally. These requirements are waived for foreigners and opinion columnists.

Violence and Harassment: Senior national and state government leaders continued to harass and intimidate privately owned and opposition-oriented television stations, media outlets, and journalists throughout the year using threats, property seizures, administrative and criminal investigations, and prosecutions. Government officials, including the president, used government-controlled media outlets to accuse private media owners, directors, and reporters of fomenting antigovernment destabilization campaigns and coup attempts.

The NGO Public Space reported that the government was responsible for 61 percent of the 248 reported violations of freedom of expression during the year. Violations included physical attacks, threats and intimidation, censorship, verbal and judicial harassment, and administrative restrictions. The NGO IPYS reported 200 violations of freedom of expression, in which 204 victims suffered physical attacks, between May 2010 and December 2011. According to the IPYS, seven of 10 offenders were linked to the government. Notable examples of such attacks included:

On March 4, armed assailants threatened a Globovision journalist, her cameraman, and her assistant who had captured on videotape the violent attack by progovernment supporters during opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski’s campaign event in the Caracas neighborhood of Cotiza (see section 3). According to the press, the assailants pursued the news team, who sought refuge in a nearby home, threatened them with firearms, and confiscated their camera, film, and other equipment. On March 5, Minister of Interior and Justice Tareck El Aissami accused the opposition of instigating the violence and vowed the perpetrators would be brought to justice; there was no public information about the investigation by year’s end.

On August 10, the NGO IPYS reported that individuals identified with Chavez’s PSUV party assaulted news teams from the independent Televen and Venevision television networks who were covering protests by opposition students in San Cristobal, Tachira State. Televen reported that the attackers sabotaged their recording and verbally abused its news team. Venevision claimed the attackers assaulted and kicked their cameraman, his assistant, and a correspondent. There was no public information about any government investigation of the alleged attacks.

There were no new developments reported in the apprehension or prosecution of Gabriel and Jesus Rafael Prieto Araujo, sought in connection with the May 2011 killing of Wilfredo Ojeda Peralta, an El Clarin columnist and opposition political activist.

Censorship or Content Restrictions: The government exerted pressure on the independent media through administrative, financial, and legal means to affect their editorial positions. Members of the independent media privately said they regularly engaged in self-censorship due to fear of government reprisal.

While the country’s major newspapers were independently owned, some print media tended to exercise caution to secure government advertising. Two national newspapers, Diario Vea and Correo del Orinoco, received direct financial support from the government. The Caracas newspaper Ciudad CCS was run by the presidentially appointed Capital District vice president and received funding from the mayor of the Libertador municipality of Caracas.

A March 21 Public Ministry injunction requires that when reporting on water quality, television and print media present only information supported by a technical report and backed by the relevant government entity. On March 22, Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega Diaz claimed the injunction was necessary following allegations of water contamination by two governors, whom she claimed were “trying to generate a matrix of negative opinion… and generate conflict, chaos” (see section 2.a.). Ortega denied the injunction violated the public’s right to information and claimed it ensured that the media “complied with their responsibility” and that the population received information that was “objective, truthful, and timely.”

Dinorah Giron and Leocenis Garcia, the director and editor, respectively, of the opposition-oriented weekly newspaper Sexto Poder, remained on conditional release pending trial on charges of instigating hatred, insulting public officials, and committing violence against women for the newspaper’s August 2011 photos and accompanying article, which alleged that the government put on a “cabaret” to distract the public from real issues.

The government also exercised control over content through licensing and broadcasting requirements. CONATEL acted selectively on applications from private broadcasters for renewal of their broadcast frequencies. During the first three months of the year, CONATEL closed 35 privately owned FM radio stations, charging that they were pirate stations operating illegally or had not complied with administrative or tax obligations. Some station owners publicly denied those allegations and charged that the government had not shut down pirate stations with a progovernment editorial line. The press reported that more than 1,100 pirate stations continued to operate. The NGO Public Space reported that many station owners requested renewed licenses but “CONATEL does not respond in a timely manner and then punishes the radio stations.” The press quoted the president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Radio Broadcasting as saying that “requesting does not give you the right [to operate]. That is outside the law.”

On April 27, local press quoted privately owned cable station RCTV’s legal adviser Oswaldo Quintana as charging that CONATEL continued to deny RTV’s application to register as a national audiovisual producer and thereby resume its cable and satellite broadcasts. Quintana claimed that “we go there practically every week to register the station. We go and say that we came to submit the technical information and the registration as a national audiovisual producer and they ask us what station we are representing. When we say RCTV, they say the registry is closed.” Cable operators had ceased broadcasting RCTV in 2010 after CONATEL reclassified it from an “international” to a “national” audiovisual producer. CONATEL then alleged that RCTV violated the requirement of national producers to provide live coverage of mandatory government broadcasts (cadenas), including most speeches by President Chavez.

Libel Laws/National Security: The government sought to exercise control over the press through the Center for National Situational Studies (CESNA), established in 2010. This government entity, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior and Justice, is responsible for “compiling, processing, and analyzing” both government-released and other public information with the objective of “protecting the interests and objectives of the state.” On March 22, the Supreme Court admitted a complaint filed by the NGO Public Space, the National Journalists Association, and the National Union of Press Workers in 2010 seeking the annulment of the presidential decree establishing CESNA. The organizations expressed concern about the potential for abuse and censorship on national security grounds by CESNA. The court held a hearing on October 11 and listened to testimony by NGOs but took no further action.

Nongovernmental Impact: The widespread violence in the country made it difficult to determine whether attacks against journalists resulted from common criminal activity or were specifically directed against members of the media.

The law, including related regulations and statutory instruments, provides that all private and public sector workers (except armed forces members) have the right to form and join unions of their choice, and it protects collective bargaining and the right to strike. However, the law places several restrictions on these rights. Minimum membership requirements for unions differ based on the type of union. A minimum of 20 workers is required to form a company union; 40 workers in the same field to form a professional, industrial, or sectoral union in one jurisdiction; and 150 workers to form a regional or national union. Under law, employers may negotiate a collective contract only with the union that represents the majority of their workers. Minority organizations cannot jointly negotiate in cases where no union represents an absolute majority.

The law recognizes the right of all public and private sector workers to strike in accordance with conditions established by labor law. Under the Organic Labor Law, enacted on April 30, workers participating in legal strikes receive immunity from prosecution and their time-in-service may not be reduced by the time engaged in a strike. The law requires that striking workers be reincorporated and provides for prison terms of six to15 months for employers who fail to do so. Replacement workers are not permitted during legal strikes.

However, the new Organic Labor Law also prohibits striking workers from paralyzing the production or provision of essential public goods and services. The minister of labor and social security may order public or private sector strikers back to work and submit their disputes to arbitration if the strike “puts in immediate danger the lives or security of all or part of the population.” Other laws establish criminal penalties for the exercise of the right to strike in certain circumstances. For example, the law prohibits and punishes with a five- to10-year prison sentence anyone who “organizes, supports, or instigates the realization of activities within security zones that are intended to disturb or affect the organization and functioning of military installations, public services, industries and basic [mining] enterprises, or the social-economic life of the country.” In addition, the law provides for prison terms of two to six years and six to 10 years, respectively, for those who restrict the distribution of goods and for “those … who develop or carry out actions or omissions that impede, either directly or indirectly, the production, manufacture, import, storing, transport, distribution, and commercialization of goods.” Labor activists have been charged under these provisions as well as under provisions for “instigation to commit a crime,” “blocking public access,” and restriction of the “right to work.”

In June the International Labor Organization (ILO) reiterated its call on the government to amend the law to exclude from the definition of “essential services” services “that are not essential in the strict sense of the term … [and] so that in no event may criminal sanctions be imposed in cases of peaceful strikes.”

The law prohibits “any act of discrimination or interference contrary to the exercise” of workers’ right to unionize. The new Organic Labor Law bans the employment of contracted employees for jobs that are “of a permanent character, occur inside the business’s installations, and are directly related to the productive process.” The law also bans employers from hiring contractors to evade legal obligations to workers. Employers have three years to comply with the law’s provisions on contracted workers. However, the law also places a number of restrictions on unions’ ability to administer their activities. For example, the CNE has the authority to administer internal elections of labor unions, federations, and confederations. By law elections must be held at least every three years. If CNE-administered and -certified elections are not held within this period, the law prohibits union leaders from representing workers in negotiations or engaging in anything beyond administrative tasks.

The government did not enforce legal protections in the public sector. According to PROVEA, while “the National Institute for Prevention, Health, and Labor Security improved the inspection processes and has forced many private businesses to correct dangerous labor conditions, these demands were not made in a similar manner in enterprises and entities of the state.”

The government placed restrictions on the freedom of association and right to collective bargaining through administrative and legal mechanisms. Labor unions in both the private and public sectors noted long delays in obtaining CNE concurrence to hold elections and in receiving certification of the election results, which hindered unions’ ability to bargain collectively because union leaders were not permitted to represent workers in negotiations. The ILO noted that it repeatedly found cases of interference in trade union elections by the CNE. For instance, critics charged that the CNE delayed the union election at the state-owned iron ore company Ferrominera Orinoco until July 29 to allow for the registration of hundreds of new progovernment contract workers, which increased the number of eligible voters from 3,224 in 2008 to 5,617 in 2012. The press reported that some Ferrominera managers pressured workers to vote for the progovernment platform. Despite these tactics, the opposition candidate won reelection as head of the union.

In addition, the government was reportedly responsible for the creation of many “parallel” unions, which sought to dilute the membership and effectiveness of traditional, independent unions. In general these new unions were not subject to the same government scrutiny and requirements regarding leadership elections. In November 2011 the government created a progovernment labor confederation, the Bolivarian Socialist Workers’ Center, with more than 6,700 unions, many of which are new, “parallel” unions.

The government prosecuted and punished union leaders and members for peaceful protests in defense of their labor rights. On August 28, PROVEA reported that 120 union members were being prosecuted for demanding collective contracts, the right to strike, and union rights. For example, in June the ILO reiterated its call for the government to immediately release six PDVSA workers detained since 2009 for their participation in a strike and to drop the criminal charges against them. It called on the government to “not resort to arrests and imprisonment in connection with the organization of or participation in a peaceful strike; such measures entail serious risks of abuse and are a grave threat to freedom of association.”

On August 8, PROVEA reported that members of the armed forces arrested five union members during a labor protest in Fort Murachi, Tachira State, against a construction company that had been contracted by the government to build housing in the fort as part of the government’s “Great Housing Mission.” The workers were seeking unpaid back pay that the Ministry of Labor had ordered be paid, as well as other social security, food, savings, and transportation benefits. The government charged the workers with disturbing a security zone, and threats and offenses against the armed forces; penalties could include prison terms ranging from six months to eight years. At year’s end the workers were on parole pending trial before a military tribunal. PROVEA called for the case to be transferred to a civilian court.

On November 28, the court postponed hearings in the case of union leader Ruben Gonzalez, who was appealing his February 2011 conviction for his role in organizing a 2009 strike at the state-owned iron ore company Ferrominera Orinoco. The strike had been called to protest the company’s alleged failure to pay overdue wages and comply with other elements of the collective agreement. The government conditionally released Gonzalez in March 2011 following protests by labor activists and students.

The government continued to refuse to adjudicate or otherwise resolve the cases of 19,000 PDVSA employees who were fired during and after the 2002-03 national strike. The Ministry of Labor continued to deny registration to UNAPETROL, a union composed of these workers.

Union leaders were subject to violent attacks. The Venezuelan Observatory for Social Conflict (OVCS) reported that, during the first eight months of the year, 65 union workers were killed, 85 percent of whom worked in the construction sector. It attributed these killings, in large part, to interunion disputes in competition over job contracts. However, the lack of effective investigations made determining the motive for the killings difficult. According to OVCS and PROVEA, most violent crimes between and against union workers were not investigated by the government and few were solved. PROVEA reported that “less than 5 percent of the cases have been investigated” or punished. In its report to the ILO Governing Body in June, the Committee on Freedom of Association urged the government to expedite investigations to identify and punish the instigators or accomplices of the 2009 murders of three officials of the Bolivarian Union of Workers in the Construction Industry.

On March 19, the court ruled that Rodney Alvarez would remain in custody for his alleged role in the June 2011 killing of progovernment unionist Renny Rojas. In August 2011 the government accused Alvarez of committing the homicide; Alvarez was reportedly affiliated with Ruben Gonzalez’s faction of the union (see above). Gonzalez publicly insisted that Hector Maican, a government supporter and the union’s secretary of finance, was responsible for Rojas’ death. Police initially detained Maican in connection with the shooting but subsequently dropped the homicide charge. At year’s end Alvarez remained detained pending trial.

According to PROVEA, “large sectors of national, state, and municipal public administrations and an important number of state enterprises continued to refuse to discuss collective agreements.” According to labor group Autonomous Front in Defense of Employment, Wages, and Unions (FADESS), there were more than 400 expired public sector union contracts nationwide. In 2011 PROVEA noted the public sector’s reliance on contracted employees, who are not covered by collective agreements, violated workers’ right to collective agreements.