Threats and aggression against the press

Si no entiendes inglés, simplemente ve el video. Comenta!

My two cents: This video disgusts me and embarrasses me, but it motivates me to spread what is going on in Venezuela. I was not in the country when this happened and honestly, never saw all the action in detail. Notice that the common denominator in the images of the attackers is just pure hatred. This TV station's motto was something like "La televisión del pueblo" The television of the people. But, as you will see, the very same people represented by them poured out a rain of non-sense violence over the reporters, cameramen, vehicles and facilities.

These stories happened a little while back. The TV network (RCTV: Radio Caracas Televisión) was under attack by people that was influenced by the Chavez{s administration and it got closed down. Today they operate via cable TV. They created this video.

Please read the transcript but also, see what is happening on the top left of the screen as each journalist and cameraman tells theirs story. Watch the video!

I am not a writer, so bear with me here alright?. All I did was write and translate to the best of my abilities what the journalists have to say in the video.

All these stories occurred in Venezuela, 3 hours south of Miami by plane.

Comments are welcome.

Threats and aggression suffered by the press

Narrator

Democracy without voice is like a body without a soul, a face with no eyes. The journalism gives voice and vision to the people. But  Venezuela has sought to curtail freedom of expression.

Let us take a look at the threats and aggression suffered by the those who fight to keep being the voice and the eyes of our democracy.

Luisiana Rios

Journalist

I am a journalist and was there to report facts and I was a victim of physical attacks without reason, without argument. Nobody did anything to prevent it. All this happen because the hate against the media that has been planted in the heads of these groups (chavismo).

Laura Catellanos
Journalist

In the year 2002 covering the streets was different. you needed to go out with bullet proof jacket, anti-gas masks, they did not repect that you were a women and for the first time I experienced the fear to loose my life.

Javier Garcia

Journalist

Any source meant a risk, I wondered if it is neccessay go?

Isnardo Bravo

Journalist

We went to cover a story about the Seguro Social (social security).. about a workers protest...we were surprised, we could not understand why was it that since we were covering a story that it was important to the workers they welcomed us throwing from the Seguro Social's building dirty water.

Isabel Maverez

Journalist

When I felt that stone in my forehead the first thing I felt was a burning sensation and a great amount of blood running through my face and falling to the ground.

Eduardo Sapene

VP Information and Opinion

They went, from individual offenses to a collective attack against the TV station's facilities. The most important fact of that difficult moment lied in the protection of the workers, more than the physical headquarters. Then they organized group that unfolded their intentions against the people, meaning the workers of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). They were pretending that they were for the people but their actions demonstrated the opposite.

Edgardo Mosca

VP of engineering and Operations

When the aggressions started, we decided to get rid of the logos of our uniforms and vehicles, however, when our lives were in danger we took extreme measures. We installed armored doors, anti-bullet glass also restricted the entry of people to the station.

Luisiana Rios

Journalist

I got kidnapped for more than three hours at the congress' doors by a group of people that their sole intention was to assault Luisiana Rios, regardless of my gender and that my mission was bringing the truth to the Venezuelan people.

Laura Castellanos

Journalist

I was pregnant, and other members and colleagues protected me. ...although that caused for me to loose the amniotic fluid, calcification of the uterus, and I could not do my job on the streets any longer.

David Perez Hansen

Journalist

I was in La Plaza Bolivar, it was in a situation about public order and suddenly I felt a stone hit me on the head. I felt fearful because you can not imagine what kind of injuries and impact of that magnitude can cause.

Moirah Sanchez

Attorney

When facing a systematic pattern of physical and verbal attacks against our journalists and against the Radio Caracas Television's headquarters and the inaction of the Public Ministry to investigate and give sanctions to the responsible; we had to go to international forums in defense of our right to life, physical integrity, and our judicial guarantees our freedom of expression.

Antonio Josa Monroy

Cameraman

I felt something hot in my right leg, I stay still for a moment, I walked three steps and I felt and started turning on the ground. I felt next to a business door, then my co-worker (penalete) bends down and tells me 'Monroy Run" I can't run because I got shot in the leg.

Armando Amaya

Cameramen assistant

We were at the Plaza Bolivar, and I felt gun shot in my right leg and I felt, when I am on the ground I felt sad and impotent when I saw my co-workers also hurt. Several of us were hurt.

Anarris Cruz

Journalist

... I had no idea in what part of Aragua [State] I was because everything was very dark. In order to safeguard our lives we were in a very small room.

Herbigio Henriquez

Cameraman

In the past, we went to a place where some news were taking place, and the national guard and the police would protect us.

Darwyn Rosales

Journalist

For the first time we were in need of abandon the place where news were happening to safeguard our lives.

Yamile Jimenez

Journalist

When a DISIP officer hit my cameraman's camera and then he pointed at me with his gun I felt indignation to see that the person that was threatening my life was an officer that his job was to protect the lives of the Venezuelan people.

Anaris Cruz

Journalist

I felt impotent and angry because not only the pull my hair but the threw my on the ground and they started kicking me. And the police was there witnessing this and they did nothing to stop the action.

David Perez Hansen

Journalist

... and in that instance, a supposedly professor of the Universidad Central de Venezuela (Venezuela Central University) shows up and attacked me, the one telling the story, the one that has nothing to do with the conflict by taking the microphone away from me and throwing it with anger to the ground. And I wondered what can I do?

PedroNikken

Journalist

Suddenly I heard a lot of gun shots and unfortunately when I turned around I saw our cameraman on the ground with a gun shot wound.

Isnardo Bravo

Journalist

And they were shotting us with high caliber guns because we heard the impacts on the wall surrounding the building,

WildeJohn Azuaje

Cameramen

When we arrived there I felt a big noise which was a bottle they throw and broke our windshield.

Maria Elisa Gonzalez

Journalist

Today I can not understand why if we went to help we were the target of the attackers.

Junior Acosta

Journalist

We identified ourselves as the Journalist Team of Radio Caracas Televisión, right after that the assault started against us and one of the military officers broke the camera's viewfinder.

Yanitza Leon

Journalist

I was in the CNE and then a woman approached me and started pulling my hair, she was full of anger, and I wondered gosh, I come from the same social stratum as her, a humble person that grew and worked, studied to be a journalist and I am simply here to give the information and am a victim of a hatred that until now I can not understand.

Pedro Guerrero

Journalist

We have been humiliated in several occasions in the past but no greater than in October 28, 2006 when I did not feel a journalist but a delinquent. Our equipment was held, we were held in the Palacio de Miraflores (the White House),  they took our cell phones...

Narrator

Today we continue our mission to be for the people, we are a reflexion of our people and only to them we owe.

RCTV (Radio Caracas Television)