This is today’s Editorial by Teodoro Petkoff on the case of the President’s daughter and the order to remove the supposedly offensive article from the Internet, which I consider to be a very serious attempt to curtail freedom of speech. The decision by the Copuncil for Kids is even more coercive than I had thought originally, it actually orders Laureano Marquez to not even mention the case as well as ordering Tal Cual from removing the article from the Internet. Remarkable that this Council can have so much power to censor a newspaper and a reporter/writer/humorist. To me, this is extremely bothersome, something this important should be decided by a high Court, not by a bunch of handpicked bureaucrats who as far as I know do very little day after day.(Have you ever heard of them? I dd not even know their new name) I also find it interesting that Petkoff does not see himself as the objective of the “procedure”, given that he is likely to be a candidate for President in December.
Dear
Council for the kids by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual
As our
readers already know, the National Council for the rights of kids and adolescents
(CNDNA) has “notified” Laureano Marquez and the Director of Tal Cual of its
decision to initiate an “administrative procedure” against us for the violation
of the Honor, Reputation, Own Image, Private Life and Family Intimacy of the
girl ROSINÉS CHÁVEZ RODRÍGUEZ (…) for the action of the article entitled Dear Rosines,
of the column Serious Humor, published in the Tal Cual daily on November 25th.
2005, according to what it is stated in the document of “notification”. On top
of that and while the mentioned “administrative procedure” moves forward, it “ORDERS”
Laureano Marquez “to not make or publish any type of comments, editorials,
publications and/or public acts that directly or indirectly, may act in detriment
of the MORAL INTEGRITY of the girl ROSINÉS CHÁVEZ RODRÍGUEZ. Similarly it is “ORDERED”
that Teodoro Petkoff or whomever is in charge of being Director of Tal Cual, to
“not publish or divulge in any communications media, radio, TV, printed press
and/or digital (Internet), the article published on November 25th. 2005,
in pages 1 (cover) and 2, or any other one that ahs any relation with the girl ROSINÉS
CHÁVEZ RODRÍGUEZ” (To the quoted text, we place next to them the proverbial SIC,
RE-SIC Y RECONTRA-SIC, to signify that of that writing, punctuation and capital
letters, Tal Cual has no responsibility over them.)
First of
all, it is appropriate to point out that in the cited article by Laureano
Marquez you will not find anything that attempts against the honor, reputation,
own image private life or intimate family life of anyone. At the same time, the CNDNA does not point to
even a single line of text by Laureano Marquez that may be considered as a demonstration
of the supposed offense. It accuses (and condemns at once, by the way) without
any proof. In his customary humoristic tone, Laureano, basing himself in the
public comment by the President about the concerns of his daughter for the
twisted neck of the horse in the country’s Coat of Arms, makes funny
reflections about the topic, with some affectionate references to the girl. In
fact, Laureano ends sending her the same blessings that he wishes for his own
daughter. Those lines could not be nicer. Thus, there is no offense and least
of all, one that would be so despicable such as attempting against the
attributes of privacy, honor, and the personal dignity that all human beings
have and more so if it happens to be a girl or a boy.
The citations that appear sometimes in the media-never offensive, by the way-to
the youngest daughter of the President derive precisely of the circumstance
that it is him that has made of her a sort of pleasurable public reference, frequently
citing in his interventions her witticism and mischief. In fact, her ineffable
turtle is felt as their own by many kids in the country. In the time of Raul
Leoni, it was common the media references to the travails of his then youngest
son, Alvarito. Jose Vicente Rangel himself used to refers in his writings to
the going ons of his grandson Tato. The
truth is that it has always been a likeable recourse that sweetens a little bit
the natural hardness of political life. That is perceived in a clear manner
precisely in the article by Laureano.
Thus, if the action by the CNDNA had any pertinent (which it does not), it should
begin by the absurd request that the President abstain from mentioning her
daughter in his speeches.
Nobody
would have referred to that girl if the circumstance that his own father, who
happens to the President, mediated for it to happen and made her famous. In
fact, once we saw a sign at a political rally in Cumana where you could read, in a show of flatter:’
Chavez until 2021 and afterwards…Rosines”. Nevertheless, Hugo Chavez has all of
the rights to speak of his family and to demand that he does not do it would be
a true misstep.
But it also would be a misstep to threaten penal sanctions to whomever touches in a
tangential mode the name of the girl, which is what has been habitually been
done.
All of this would not pass from being a trivial episode, not exempt of being ridiculous,
if the supposed defense of the interest of the young girl did not hide a
restrictive conception about the exercise of freedom of speech and an attempt to
limit it with a complex maneuver. Unless it is nothing but a simple act of
sucking up to the President.
Besides this, have the people of the CNDNA thought about how counterproductive
it will be to the ends that they claim to follow, to make such an unjustifiable
public scandal about a matter that eventually could place the girl Rosinés
Chávez Rodríguez, in the center of a judicial dispute in which she has no art or
part?
The Devil's Excrement 
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