Reporters without Borders blasts Hugo Chavez...

[SaveElmer]

Venezuela
31 May 2007

After closing RCTV, Chávez goes on offensive against sole remaining opposition TV station


Reporters Without Borders today accused President Hugo Chávez of aiming to eliminate all the opposition press after he publicly threatened independent TV station Globovisión and CNN, claiming they were instigating a “vast destabilisation plan,” just two days after the closure of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV).

“By calling Globovisión’s staff ‘enemies of the motherland’ and by clearly threatening participants in its broadcasts ‘if they don’t calm down,’ President Chávez is displaying paranoia and intolerance,” the press freedom organisation said.

“Unfortunately, there is no longer any doubt about his goals,” Reporters Without Borders added. “RCTV’s closure was just the prelude to the progressive disappearance of all the opposition press. Media that criticise the government will be snuffed out one by one until only the pro-government media are left.”

Communication and information minister William Lara brought a complaint against privately-owned Globovisión on 28 May, accusing it of broadcasting content “inciting violence.” The station broadcast footage of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul at a time when Chávez was criticising Pope Benedict. Lara said this was tantamount to calling for the president’s assassination.

The station’s director, Alberto Federico Ravell, and the host of its programme “Aló, Ciudadano” (Hello Citizen), Leopoldo Castillo, have received judicial summonses and face prosecutions.

Reporters Without Borders also condemns the activities, reported by the Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, of a group of pro-Chávez journalists called “Periodistas por la Verdad,” who have been trying to get people to believe that two supposed Reporters Without Borders members - Enzo Pierini et Carlos Folchi - were distributing leaflets containing hate messages targeted at President Chávez.

These allegations are unfounded and ridiculous, and the press freedom organisation does not know these two people.

“It is easy for the authorities to condone this kind of slur while refusing our requests for a meeting during the fact-finding trip we made to Venezuela from 24 to 28 May,” Reporters Without Borders said. “And it seems they did not agree that the news conference we gave on the last day should be broadcast live and in full by Globovisión.”

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22374

[LoZoccolo]

1. People are going to tell you that Reporters Without Borders is a right-wing organization.

Because they criticized Chavez!

[SaveElmer]

3. Didn't take long...nt

[Mika]

8. Because they criticized Chavez?

Go to their website. Look at their funding sources. Mellon Scaife foundations.

Their Cuba reporting is a joke. They use the Faux News 'some people say' technique of reporting/stenography they get directly from Cubanet (also Mellon Scaife funded).

[LoZoccolo]

9. Some people say Chavez is a dictator! n/t

[papau]

38. Even the name is a rip-off of the medical version. They as right wing as they come. n/t

n/t

[John Q. Citizen]

16. Reporters Without Boarder (or ethics) is a rightwing organization. They were

before Chavez, and they will be after Chavez.

Shame on the OP for posting right wing propaganda.

[LoZoccolo]

18. Oh yeah, here's some right-wing propaganda for you!

The United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002. Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of “national security” to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism.” The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19388

[John Q. Citizen]

24. This from Source Watch, A Project for Media and Democracy.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Reporters_Without_Borders

Funding Sources
Robert Menard, the Secretary General of RSF, was forced to confess that RSF's budget was primarily provided by "US organizations strictly linked with US foreign policy" (Thibodeau, La Presse).

NED (US$39,900 paid 14 Jan 2005)
Center for a Free Cuba (USAID and NED funded) $50,000 per year NED grant. Contract was signed by Otto Reich
European Union (1.2m Euro) -- currently contested in EU parliament
Rights & Democracy in 2004 supported Reporters Without Borders-Canada <1>
"Grants from private foundations (Open Society Foundation, Center for a Free Cuba, Fondation de France, National Endowment for Democracy) were slightly up, due to the Africa project funded by the NED and payment by Center for a Free Cuba for a reprint of the banned magazine De Cuba." <2>

Principal focus of RSF activities
Cuba
Venezuela
Haiti

Otto Reich connection
"The man who links RSF to these activities is Otto Reich, who worked on the coups first as assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs, and, after Nov. 2002, as a special envoy to Latin America on the National Security Council. Besides being a trustee of the government-funded Center for a Free Cuba, which gives RSF $50,000 a year, Reich has worked since the early 1980's with the IRI.'s senior vice president, Georges Fauriol, another member of the Center for a Free Cuba. But it is Reich's experience in propaganda that is especially relevant." <3>

You can catapult the propaganda all you want, but it doesn't mean anybody but the feeble minded are going to buy it. But good luck.

Reporters Without Boarders is a rightwing project, and your support for their propaganda says a lot.

[Warren Stupidity]

34. And the response is:

http://sulger.net/soundsculptures/fountain.html

[Warren Stupidity]

25. No because it is a compromised organization.

Not because the criticize Chavez.

So how long would a broadcast station in this country retain it's license after participating in a foreign sponsored coup and a foreign sponsored destabilization campaign?

[bananas]

2. Reporters Without Borders Unmasked

Reporters Without Borders Unmasked http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html

The Reporters Without Borders Fraud http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=7851

edit to add:
Reporters Without Borders and Washington's Coups http://www.counterpunch.com/barahona08012006.html

[springhill]

4. Thank you for those links.......

As soon as I read the post, red flags went up for me. I knew they would be somehow connected to our government.

[Clark2008]

7. Can you find a better source than Counterpunch?

I don't believe a thing they have to say. I've seen them proven wrong too many times.

[bananas]

11. "I hereby RESURRECT the Official DU Hugo Chavez Right-Wing Falsehood Debunking Thread!!!"

Look through these threads:

"I hereby RESURRECT the Official DU Hugo Chavez Right-Wing Falsehood Debunking Thread!!!"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2199484&mesg_id=2199484

"Official DU Hugo Chavez Right-Wing Falsehood Debunking Thread"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=311462&mesg_id=311462

[springhill]

14. This also from Robert McChesney:

And I'm sorry, but if you don't trust him, you don't trust anyone.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/01/1607/

Venezuela and the Media: Fact and Fiction

[LoZoccolo]

15. They were also a source used by the FReeper disruptor seventhson!

The Haitian man-boobs story came from Counterpunch!

[Judi Lynn]

12. Thanks for posting this information. It's good to have it available. n/t

[enid602]

5. Chavez

Chavez needs to learn a lesson from the Republicans' playbook; you buy opposition media and replace it with religious programming, or get your rich cronies together to drop advertising contracts and force the media company into bankruptcy. Entice/dissuade them by awarding/refusing defense contracts, patents, etc. Then you have TOTAL control.

[pocoloco]

6. Workrd for *.

[John Q. Citizen]

10. Here's the info.

Its Secret Deal with Otto Reich to Wreck Cuba's Economy
Reporters Without Borders Unmasked
By DIANA BARAHONA

When Robert Menard founded Reporters Without Borders twenty years ago, he gave his group a name which evokes another French organization respected worldwide for its humanitarian work and which maintains a strict neutrality in political conflicts ­ Doctors Without Borders. But RSF (French acronym) has been anything but nonpartisan and objective in its approach to Latin America and to Cuba in particular.

From the beginning, RSF has made Cuba its No. 1 target. Allegedly founded to advocate freedom of the press around the world and to help journalists under attack, the organization has called Cuba "the world's biggest prison for journalists." It even gives the country a lower ranking on its press freedom index than countries where journalists routinely have been killed, such as Colombia, Peru and Mexico. RSF has waged campaigns aimed at discouraging Europeans from vacationing in Cuba and the European Union from doing business there ­ its only campaigns worldwide intended to damage a country's economy.

The above is not a matter of chance because it turns out that RSF is on the payroll of the U.S. State Department and has close ties to Helms-Burton-funded Cuban exile groups.

As a majority of members of Congress work toward normalizing trade and travel with Cuba, the extremist anti-Castro groups that have dictated U.S. Cuba policy for 40 years continue working tirelessly to maintain an economic stranglehold on the island. Their support for RSF is part of this overall strategy.

....more at http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html

[Joanne98]

13. LIARS!

[Forkboy]

17. Why do we even Chavez threads in this forum?

Not to single you out personally Elmer,there's been a bunch by others as well.I was just under the impression this forum was more for US politics and campaigns than for this stuff.This seems like perfect stuff for GD.

Again,not trying to single you out Elmer,just getting curious why we have them in here instead of GD.

[LoZoccolo]

19. Left-wing authoritarian spammers started it.

My mission is to show people that they do not have to be cowed into submission by the manipulative and hammerheaded tactics of left-wing authoritarians, and to free the people of Venezuela!

[Forkboy]

20. I have no interest in who started what,or your self appointed mission.

If they are spammers then we should let the mods and admin deal with it,not add our own spam to the pile.

I'm just wondering why they are in this forum at all,regardless of which side one is on.

[LoZoccolo]

21. You did want an explanation, though.

That is mine. A significant percent of people here have no interest in the Democratic Party, and are here to spam for radical movements, through annoyance and threats.

[Forkboy]

22. Fair enough

[ret5hd]

23. Oh this is just TOO fuckin rich...LoCozzolo worried about ANNOYANCE...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xOdATCFM30

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
what a tool!

[LoZoccolo]

26. That is a great work in political cinema and you should not mock it.

Years from now, Farenheit 9/11 will be forgotten, and The Nader Movie will be shown in history classes.

[John Q. Citizen]

29. As a spokesperson for the Zell Miller/Joe Lieberman wing of the Democratic Party,

he has been invaluable in muddying the waters and marginalizing progressives for a long time.

[LoZoccolo]

30. Zell Miller? What the fuck?

Go find my Zell Miller post. Go find me one!

Or Joe Lieberman.

You wish. That's deluded.

[LoZoccolo]

31. Here's your fucken Zell Miller posts you should have looked for, you can be quiet now.

Seems to me I thought he was crazy, and ended up being the Pat Buchanan of the 2004 convention, in that he made the Republicans look extreme, and I also compared him to a dictator. Know what you're talking about before you talk such junk.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=716975#717241
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=719806#719880
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=720141#720210
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=726963#727323

[ret5hd]

33. Doooga dooga dooga dooga dooga?

[LoZoccolo]

35. And here's the Joe Lieberman ones.

Seems I was behind Lamont; so where did your comment come from? I have a few guesses.

If you can't tell the difference between my constructive criticism of the way the netroots co-opted Lamont's campaign (no-one should co-opt anyone's campaign), and support for Lieberman, you need to put me on ignore because you cannot understand my posts. You have to be this tall to ride on the ride.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2775760
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2873362#2873986
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=2896822#2898549

There are more, but I'm not wasting time doing something that was your job to begin with.

[ret5hd]

36. Doooga dooga dooga dooga dooga?

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LoZoccolo]

28. Alright, dudde.

Talk about insults while you toss this "rightwinger" one. Go find me more than ten Democratic politicians praising Chavez and then maybe you can start to call us right wing.

[Warren Stupidity]

32. You should read your own post.

Here:

"Left-wing authoritarian spammers started it.
My mission is to show people that they do not have to be cowed into submission by the manipulative and hammerheaded tactics of left-wing authoritarians, and to free the people of Venezuela!"

Don't act so set upon when your own shit is tossed right back at you.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

45. It's a grey area

I'm not totally certain how US-centric GD and GD:P are meant to be, but either way I think discussion of Chavez has enough impact on US politics to justify its presence here.

Whether such threads ever achieve anything is another matter...

[Larkspur]

37. Reporters without Borders is biased.

They are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which is a rightwing leaning group that assists with overthrowing or destablizing any left wing leaning governments in Central and Latin America. NED servers the corporate interests, not the people.

[ellisonz]

42. And look at the list of "big names" involved:

Current and former directors of the Endowment's Board include Lee Hamilton of the 9/11 Commission, former Congressman Richard Gephardt, Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Frank Carlucci of the Carlyle Group, retired General Wesley Clark, Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Dr. Francis Fukuyama of Johns Hopkins SAIS, and U.S. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, former chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Endowment_for_Democracy

[Larkspur]

44. Yep, the NED is a right wing group

The DLC is the pro-corporate wing of the Dem Party and the AEI is the ultra conservative think tank for the Repukes.

[Peace Patriot]

39. For a counterbalance to our war profiteering corporate news monopolies and

Bush State Department "talking points"--and USAID/NED (Bush-funded, that is, our tax payer dollars funded) 'NGOs,' about Hugo Chavez and Venezuela, try www.venezuelanalysis.com.

There are REASONS why the Bush Junta and its corporate predator partners hate Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution, and none of them are good. (I mean, you gotta laugh when BushCo and its mouthpieces claim to be defending "free speech.") There are also REASONS why the Chavez government has been elected three times, each time with a bigger margin, in an election system that puts ours to shame for its honesty and transparency (and has been unanimously certified by the Carter Center, the OAS and EU election monitoring groups).

There are, furthermore, REASONS why the TV/radio airwaves--in Venezuela, and here--are PUBLIC PROPERTY, are LICENSED by the government, and are required to operate IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. And these reasons go to the heart of why RCTV's license was not renewed. RCTV actively participated in a violent military coup. You can see the evidence as plain as day in the Irish filmmakers' documentary "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." There is a lot you can say about a TV station participating in the overthrow of the elected government, but one thing you cannot say about it is that it is in the public interest. The elected president was kidnapped. The elected National Assembly (Congress) was shut down. The court system was shut down. And the Constitution was suspended. And thugs that RCTV was urging to take to the streets shot and killed Chavez supporters who were trying to stop this. They hosted meetings of the coup leaders. They broadcast disinformation on behalf of the coup. And the rest of the corporate media cheered them on.

We--and the Venezuelans--have the right to deny licenses to use our public airwaves for a lot less cause than this. Here--before Reagan--we used to have the "Fairness Doctrine," which, among other things, required that every TV/radio station give equal time to opposing political opinions. It is well within our rights--it is, indeed, our duty--to insist on fair use of our airwaves, ESPECIALLY on matters of public importance. TV/radio bandwidth is limited. It must be alloted on a fair and competitive basis, and help contribute to our democracy by providing FAIR forums for political debate--not the relentless 24/7 fascist tripe we are getting now, on every channel. Further, monopolies of the TV/radio airwaves combined with newsprint, newsmagazine, books and entertainment monopolies MUST NOT BE ALLOWED. If we had democracy here--if we had vote counting that everyone can see and understand (and not privatized, corporate-controlled, TRADE SECRET vote "counting")--we could require our government to bust these news/entertainment conglomerates up.

In Venezuela, they have managed to create (and protect) a transparent vote counting process, and are blessed with strong leadership in government, which is doing exactly as our government should be doing, and once did--preventing rightwing corporate monopoly of the public airwaves! Take RCTV and Globovision (if they do) off the air--or take Faux News and CNN/ABC/NBC/CBS off the air here--and give those licenses to new, small, competitive news organizations, or worker coops, non-profits or government-funded broadcasting--and you are not harming free speech, you are ENHANCING it.

That is the ONLY way you can do it--with a strong, people-oriented government. Without a strong, people-oriented government, corporations and fascist plotters of every kind will use their money and power to take over the country, blast their propaganda 24/7, oppress the poor and loot the government coffers--as they are doing here, with the complicity of the corporate news monopolies.

It is the ultimate irony that RCTV and its well-healed supporters are crying "free speech." What do you suppose that the military junta that RCTV supported--if it had succeeded--would have done to free speech in Venezuela--after they suspended the Constitution and shut down the entire government? I guarantee you that the next step would have been mass graves for union organizers, leftists and peasants--as are being discovered in Colombia, that bastion of democratic values that Bush has been larding with $4 billion of our tax dollars.

[JNelson6563]

40. Any facts disregarded here?

Perhaps...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1025893

[doggyboy]

41. Very disappointing

The OP should learn to check his sources

[Vidar]

43. Reporters without Borders is a CIA front orgnization.