MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez, Correa promise to protect their peoples from “unethical” media

Correan and Chavez, two presidents that don't like to be criticized

Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa announced they intend to create international bodies within the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) to protect both governments and peoples against the unethical behaviour of some news media.

Ecuador’s president said that when he takes office as head of Unasur he will sponsor the creation of organizations to monitor the unethical, irresponsible press and another to monitor human rights.

In a joint press conference over the weekend at the Yellow Hall at the Palace of Carondelet, seat of the Ecuadorian Executive, Chávez said that he is ”increasingly certain that the Organization of the American States (OAS) is something that is useless for our people“.

What is the OAS good for? Chávez asked and invited the public to think about the issue.

”Besides a rapporteur on freedom of expression, the OAS has an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which condemns us every year. Let us create within Unasur our own commissions on human rights, social movements and media. Stop the orders dictated from the North and this cynical outrage“ Chávez said.

Chavez also talked about the recent raid in Caracas to one of the properties of Guillermo Zuloaga, head of the opposition television network, Globovision, and described the media coverage of police actions as a “media show”.

“Three nights ago Venezuelan intelligence agencies received a report, according to which a lot of luxury cars had been hoarded in a villa in the eastern part of Caracas. This has become a mechanism for hoarding and speculation. So enforcement officials made the raid and surprise, surprise…the owner of the villa happens to be the owner of a TV station. The next thing is an attempt to disregard authorities, inciting people to violence and saying that the government is persecuting the media” said Chávez.

”They even contacted CNN and immediately talked to the OAS, and claimed that there was a violent raid against them. But they did not mention the reason for the police action. They tried to act with impunity, as they are used to”, claimed the Venezuelan leader.

According to Chavez speculators, such is the case, “sell the vehicles for a price four or five times higher (than the marked price). What they did when they were caught red-handed was to try to discredit authorities, incite people to violence saying that the government is persecuting the media“ Chávez insisted.

Correa was also critical of certain attitudes such as “the behaviour of some media that are unable to make self-criticism.” The press has a series of flaws which represent an attack against the attempts to change things for the sake of our America. Therefore, (...) “I will propose to create international bodies to protect the governments and peoples against the action of the corrupt press. Who questions and punishes them? When I take office as President of Unasur, I will propose the creation of such bodies”.

President Chavez, together with Bolivia’s Evo Morales visited Ecuador for the commemoration of the 187th anniversary of the battle of Pichincha, fought on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, which marked the end of Spanish colonial rule in Ecuador.