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Violent photos banned in Venezuela newspapers
by Joseph Ernest August 17, 2010
Newscast Media CARACAS, Venezuela — On Tuesday, a Venezuela court ordered newspapers to stop publishing images depicting blood, guns and other violent images and warned an opposition-aligned daily that could face a serious fine for publishing a photo of bodies in a morgue.
Venezuelan officials say the ruling aims to protect children and adolescents from violent images, but opponents call the move censorship and say it is motivated by a desire to control popular perceptions of crime in Venezuela, which has one of Latin America's highest murder rates.
In its ruling, the court said it prohibited the publication of "images, information and publicity of any type that contains blood, guns, alarming messages or physical aggression images that incorporate warfare content and messages about killings and deaths that could alter the well being of children and adolescents." Story continues below
Publications that violate the order, he said, could be shut down.
"They should come and put a censor here and tell us what cannot be published," Otero quipped.
Otero suggested that El Nacional — one of the South American nation’s oldest newspapers — might defy the court order because the newspaper does not plan to change its editorial line or refrain from publishing photographs including violent content.
"This doesn’t have anything to do with …. protecting children and juveniles," Otero said. “It’s political."
Last week, attorney general’s office said in a statement that would launch an investigation to determine of El Nacional broke the law by publishing the photograph.
Several other opposition-sided newspapers published the same photograph this week as a show of solidarity with El Nacional.
"There’s a terrible string of slayings in the country and that’s the issue at hand," said Teodoro Petkoff, editor of the newspaper Tal Cual.
Violent crime is one of Venezuela’s most pressing problems, and Chavez foes are raising concerns ahead of legislative elections in September.
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