[Media-watch] FW: Venezuela

[David Miller]

for info
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From: "Stephen McCloskey" <stephen at owcni.org.uk>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 15:13:28 -0000
To: <stephen at owcni.org.uk>
Subject: Venezuela

Dear all 

One of the members of Cuba Support Group Belfast, Denis O'Hearn, sent the
letter of complaint below to RTE concerning its on-line (newsonline at rte.ie)
and radio broadcasts this morning on the result of the referendum held at
the weekend in Venezuela on the leadership of President Hugo Chavez.  The
referendum was called by the opposition in an attempt to 'recall' President
Chavez and force elections before he completes his term of office.  The RTE
on-line headline ran 'Opposition brands Chavez victory fraud'  By this
afternoon, the headline had changed to 'EU Commission hails Chavez
referendum'.  In fact, Chavez comfortably won what was a closely observed
and fairly held vote.

The change in headline may have been due to complaints from Denis and other
listeners / users.  Either way, I think we should all be vigilant concerning
press coverage over the next few days as the referendum story is reported
and be prepared to complain when necessary.  It sometimes works!

Regards 

Stephen
 
Friends,

I would like to lodge a complaint about your coverage of the Venezuelan
referendum (both online and on radio). The provisional results show that
Hugo Chavez won the referendum by a margin of about 58-42 percent. In any
other election the result would bear a headline 'Chavez wins by massive
landslide'. Instead, you are running the story under the head 'Opposition
brands Chavez victory fraud'.

Hugo Chavez has, once again, been shown by his population to be one of the
most popular democratically-elected leaders of any country in the world.
The accusations of fraud are a knee-jerk reaction by a clearly
non-democratic and corrupt opposition that have never accepted the mandate
of the Venezuelan people. They are strongly backed by the US
administration, which is (I suspect) why news organisations like your own
are running such unfounded news spins.

The Venezuelan referendum has been one of the most closely observed
elections in recent times. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter
Center is among international groups monitoring the referendum, was quoted
by CNN as calling it "the largest turnout I have ever seen" and commenting
that "Thousands of people in line are waiting patiently and without any
disturbance, and the voting that we have observed so far is going very
well." To my knowledge, the Venezuelan authorities used the modern
electronic voting equipment supplied by a US firm that is closely
associated with the Bush administration, the same voting equipment that has
been installed in Florida.

Hopefully, you will change the spin of your coverage of the Venezuelan
referendum, relfecting the true nature of the election and not the spin
that has been put on it by the US administration and its followers.

Yours sincerely,
Professor Denis O'Hearn
School of Sociology and Social Policy
Queens University, Belfast


.....................................
Stephen McCloskey
Co-ordinator
One World Centre for Northern Ireland
4 Lower Crescent
Belfast
BT7 1NR

028 9024 1879
www.owcni.org.uk



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