The LED Foundation has expressed its concern about the attachment levied on Globovision assets by the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela.
When analyzed in the overall regional context, and in particular given the tough times that the media is undergoing in Venezuela, such action clearly amounts to a restriction of citizen’s rights to freedom of expression and access to information.
As an elementary coexistence principle in any democratic society, the LED Foundation maintains that it is of vital importance that all citizens comply with Court decisions. However, when actions brought at Court are used as coertion by the political power then in office, attention needs be drawn on Human Rights and how they are being jeopardized.
The Globovision case in Venezuela is not the only case which has recently showed that there can be a connection between some Court decisions and media-government conflicts.
We understand that the tension between those exercising power and those seeking or giving information is almost always present in society and that the Courts, upon exercising their independence, should be the place to settle such disputes, while always standing up for citizen rights and never being instrumental to Power.
We thus once more request all governments in the region to thoroughly respect the rights provided for in the international treaties signed by them, and call upon all stakeholder organizations and on the citizens in general to keep on working day by day in order to guarantee the full enforcement of Human Rights, in particular Freedom of Expression and a Free Press, the main purpose of our Foundation.
02/07/2012