TO ‘OFFEND’ CHAVEZ
publiuspundit.com
Last Friday, the Venezuelan government declared a new law, one that makes it an actual crime to ‘offend Chavez.’ Chavez of course will say when he is offended. The king decides. And this means bloggers. A new Venezuelan blogger, called Jolly, gives his take here.
Venezuela: The door was closed
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The new Venezuelan Revolutionary "Criminal Code" reaches way beyond the media or journalists to touch the common man in the street or in his computer...
According to Veneconomía, from today Venezuelans lost their last windows of freedom of expression. Even the "misuse" of an international internet free site (like this Blog) or to reprint a political cartoon, which "may offend" (NOT NECESSARILY DOES) the country president or any other high official, can be (AND I AM SURE IT WILL BE) considered a crime subject to long jail sentences.
Before you write (or even speak too loudly with your wife at home), read and reflect on Veneconomia´s authoritative comment on the new Venezuela Criminal Code. For any minor "opinion crime" you can end in jail for a long time.
So, watch out..
"The trapdoor has slammed shut"
(Más abajo está la versión en español)
The amendments to the Criminal Code have finally been published in a special edition of the Official Gazette (March 16, 2005). This marks the start of a black period in Venezuela’s history as far as citizen’s rights are concerned.
The now amended Criminal Code and the Gag Law are a malevolent duo for repressing and coercing dissidence of any type against the revolutionary process that President Hugo Chavez is implementing in the country. The trapdoor has slammed shut! Thirty-four of the Code’s articles have been amended, two have been removed, and one has been added.
One of the most important changes is in Article 140, which penalizes any resident in Venezuela who, directly or indirectly, receives anything (from money or the supply of food to technological apparatus) that can be used “to the detriment” of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela from any country, group or foreign association.
This provision leaves it to the judge to decide what is or is not detrimental to the Republic; whether funds from an international foundation for carrying out activities in defense of freedom and democracy in the country received by a Venezuelan NGO would be so considered, for example.
Even more serious is that, besides increasing the sentences for the crimes of slander and libel (Articles 422 and 444), the requirements in terms of evidence of the offense have been reduced to the point where anyone could end up in prison, even though he is innocent.
Closing and putting up barriers on the public thoroughfare are also penalized (Article 357); furthermore, making any type of noise by banging pots and pans, ringing bells, or any using other instrument that disturbs the peace is not allowed either. In other words, public dissidence has been abolished.
There are also provisions for sanctioning anyone who disrespects the President of the Republic with a prison term of between 6 and 30 months and, what is worse, “the punishment will be increased by one third if the offense was proffered publicly”.
In other words, it is now a crime to offend the president in a private conversation in one’s own home. This paves the way for the phenomenon of the snitch, in the best Cuban style.
There are also sanctions for anyone who insults or offends high government officials. This rule will make filing complaints of corruption difficult, if not impossible.
Also included as a crime in the new Article 297-A is the dissemination of false information by any medium -radio, television, telephone, e-mail, or pamphlets- “intended to cause or that actually causes panic in the community or in order to maintain anxiety”.
This is the most obvious of traps. If we start with the premise that it is the obligation of any journalist to compare different versions of a fact or event, one version will always be either totally or partially inexact. In other words, any journalist exercising his profession as he ought automatically exposes himself to being sanctioned.
The crux of this new revolutionary weapon is the vagueness of the terms, which leaves their definition up to the person wielding the power.
What is worse, it reaches way beyond the media or journalists to touch the man in the street in all areas of his life.http://thejollycorner.blogspot.com/2005/03/venezuela-door-was-closed.html |
