Robyn Marshall, Caracas

There is some objective news reporting in Venezuela, although the country’s media — newspapers, television and radio — is massively dominated by the powerful, right-wing corporations owned by mega-magnate Ricardo Cisneros.

Circulo Informativo is a small, independent, fortnightly magazine with a circulation of 23,000. Published from an office in El Silencio in Caracas, it carries news on Venezuela s political events. Dr Luis Rivero, one of the editors, told Green Left Weekly he was horrified at the outright lies and misinformation carried by the dailies like El Nacional.

As an example, he displayed a headline from El Nacional that said the leaders of the right-wing political party Primero Justicia had been kidnapped by the government and then released into the streets. Rivero said that no such kidnappings had taken place.

Circulo Informativo tried to be as objective as possible, he said, criticising the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, if the government acts wrongly and offering praise if it had acted in the interests of the people.

Rivero said anyone who writes anything that is pro-Chavez is called a communist, a Fidelista (after Cuban President Fidel Castro), or even a terrorist by the right-wing press.

The paper’s current edition carries an article about the Cuban doctors who are in Venezuela giving free health consultation to thousands of poor people. The end aim of the program, called Barrio Adrento, is to have one doctor per 1000 people.

Describing the program as a “great advance”, Rivero explained that it would be irresponsible for the paper to misrepresent it.

Rivero also pointed out that Venezuela’s economic growth was much stronger than much of the media had implied. In the last year, he said, Venezuela had the highest growth in internal raw produce production in the whole of Latin America.

The new income from petroleum had enabled the government to repay external debt ahead of schedule. This had decreased interest repayments, and meant that Venezuela could obtain loans from international banks if needed.

From the reporting of the big dailies, Rivero pointed out, it seemed Venezuela was bankrupt — yet the country had US$23,114 million in reserve.

Rivero was optimistic about Venezuela’s future, arguing that the majority of Venezuelans want peace, a good living and a job.

From Green Left Weekly, April 7, 2004.
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