Andreina and Rodolfo
are feeling the weight of censorship by the revolution, each in their
own way. Both are active in radio broadcasting, where their work has
been the subject of both indirect and direct censorhip. In the case of Andreina, whose blog is quite entertaining, she has a radio program in Barquisimeto. In her own words as I learned from Ventehinker’s webiste
(rated R), she had a sexologist regularly in her radio program and ever since
the the gag law came into effect, they began being more careful about
what they talked about. Three weeks ago, she decided to give up that
section of her program to be on the safe side, which is obviously not
the same as being on the side of safer sex. Despite this, she got this
week a notice that she was fined US$ 280, under the gag law, for the comments about sex in
her program. As she says in her post, if she does not use the word
condom on the air, will there be fewer unwanted pregnancies in
Venezuela?
The second case I learn about via the blogosphere is that of Rodolfo, as told by Fran en Gotas. Rodolfo
had a radio program in the “youth” frequency of the Government’s Radio
Nacional de Venezuela. Unfortunately, Rodolfo made the mistake of
writing two negative posts about the “revolution” here and here,
one about how he is told not to talk about certain topics on the air and the other
about who he thought would get the job of Minister of Information.
Well, somebody did not like what he wrote and Rodolfo, who is not
Chavista, and his producer, who is, are now off the air for his
transgression of the rule “don’t criticize the process”. Interesting
how left-wing authoritarian Governments in the end act much like the
right-wing authoritarian Governments they love to criticize. They both
hate it when you talk about sex or when you criticize their politcs!
Two things are very interesting about these two cases. The two people
affected by the censorship of the Government are broadcasters and
bloggers at the same time. But more interestingly, if it were not for
the blogosphere, we would not know about it. Hopefully, other bloggers
will help spread their stories and show our support for both of them
and their rights.
I wonder if I could get a job at any of these radio stations?
The Devil's Excrement 