IAPA rejects censorship of newspapers in Venezuela

El Nacional censored by Venezuela’s regime

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) the fine imposed by a judge in Venezuela to “El Nacional” and “Tal Cual” of Caracas that they ended qualifying the action as an act of censorship.

Claudio Paolillo, President of the Commission on Freedom of the Press and Information of the IAPA, said through a statement that it is “an act of censorship applied in this new phase of harassment to freedom of expression, which aims to economically strangle critical and independent media to silence the voices that are not in league with the official line.”

The fine was set by a judge of the court of protection of children and adolescents retroactively for a photo published in 2010 that shows piled bodies in a morgue of the Venezuelan capital.

The decision ratified the court of children and adolescents protection, which in August 2010 made the original sentence.