Venezuelan journalists protest over paper shortage
Journalists and journalism students protested on one of Caracas' avenues Tuesday to demand that the government auction off dollars to allow newspapers to buy newsprint after nine regional dailies shut down and some of the main media chains are experiencing difficulties.
About a hundred reporters and students protested in front of the National Center for Foreign Trade, which sells currency. "The press is in agony, help Venezuela," they shouted.
Miguel Henrique Otero, editor-in-chief of El Nacional, one of Venezuela's largest circulation dailies, recently said that the newspaper had only enough paper reserves to last until February.
Many journalists have accused authorities of wanting a newsprint shortage to silence newspapers, which provide one of the last bastions for criticism of the leftist government after a crackdown on broadcasters in recent years. Officials deny that, and have questioned if newspapers are hoarding paper as part of what they call the political opposition's "economic war" to destabilize the government.
http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelan-journalists-protest-over-paper-shortage-232037426.html
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