Venezuela
Journalist in trouble for humorous editorialPosted Feb 13 2010
After Venezuelan newspaper Tal Cual published an editorial describing life without President Hugo Chavez, the publication will now have to suffer the consequences. The Ministry of Communications and Information plans to punish them for the piece, which they said shows “an aggression, a provocation and a disrespect to Venezuelan democracy,” the blog Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas reports.
The punishment for the editorial could range from jail time to closing of the newspaper. Author Laureano Márquez said that his article isn’t meant to encourage a coup or assassination, rather, it was just meant to show what Venezuela would be like.
This isn’t the first confrontation between the government and Tal Cual. In 2007, the newspaper and Márquez were both fined for publishing a humorous and fictitious dialogue between Chavez and his young daughter, Rosinés Chávez Rodríguez.