Reporter of radio station received death threats

On August 23, 2013, unidentified persons issued death threats and intimidated Gonzalo Albano, reporter of radio station Class 98.7 FM -based in San Carlos, Cojedes state-  part of private nationwide circuit Unión Radio. An armed person pointed a gun to his head and told him to “stop talking nonsense on the radio” and the warning was extended also to Germán Lozano, the media´s information manager. The journalist explained that these threats happened after he conducted an information follow-up on denunciations of alleged corruption in the regional government´s institutions.

 

Albano told IPYS Venezuela that that day in the morning, a few meters from his residence he was intercepted by an armed man who forced him to get into a car. In the back seat, the person ordered him to keep his head down and pointed the gun at him. In an intimidating tone the man said: “I am going to tell you this for your own good: Stop talking nonsense and gibberish (a vulgar word that denotes rubbish) on the radio. Stop egging on and exciting the crowds and fouling the name of the revolution” (a term commonly used to refer to the current government´s performance). This was all according to the testimony offered by the reporter to IPYS Venezuela.

 

Albano explained that the man asked him to warn his fellow mates at the radio station and also his boss, Germán Lozano, in charge of coordinating the information aired on Class 98.7 FM, who is also in charge of hosting the info news program inside the studio. IPYS Venezuela contacted Lozano, who pointed out that he has not received any direct threats as a result of this situation.

 

“This was a warning and next time you shall pay with your life”, the man told Albano, as he recalled the events. The man also told the reporter to watch out because they know where he lives, what places he frequently goes to and where his family lives.

 

This situation lasted some 10 minutes. Afterwards, the man opened the door to the car and pushed him out of the back seat so that he would exit the car. Albano stayed standing in the street and the car screeched away. On board there were two other persons in the front seats who Albano was unable to identify.

 

For denouncing alleged corruption cases

 

The reporter explained that since a few months now they have covered the information for the radio station on the alleged corruption charges in the performance of the regional government, and it is this situation, probably, that generated the threats from these unknown men.

 

He added that, they have recently broadcast complains by citizens who disagree with the draft new constitution for Cojedes state, a legal norm seeking to set the bases for regulating the public powers in the entity. This legal instrument is being thrust forward by the regional government and backed by the top brass of the national executive power. The draft project, states that this local constitution seeks to find a way to “transition into socialism”, as per a summary by the Venezuelan news agency Agencia Venezolana de Noticias (http://www.avn.info.ve/contenido/presentan-anteproyecto-constituci%C3%B3n-del-estado-cojedes).

 

The journalist denounced these events –backed by the Cojedes sectional office of the National College of Journalists- at the public prosecutor´s office. That same day, the legal instance granted a legal order for the protection and safeguard of the life and personal safety of the journalist and his family.

 

He explained that on August 26, officials of the Bolivarian Military Intelligence Service (Sebin), a state security corps, performed an expertise with regards to the incident. They also checked his cell phone as part of the investigation process.

 

The Background

 

Albano explained that months ago he received several anonymous phone calls due to some reporting work he did on the insecurity and social problems in the communities, which he published as a reporter covering event and political sources for La Opinión newspaper, a private local newspaper for which he worked until June 2013. These unidentified persons on three occasions warned him to drop his denunciations and not to continue doing his journalistic investigative research.

 

Albano stated that this did not intimidate him and he continued to do his work as a journalist without fear and without censoring it.

 

The death threats and intimidation actions can be deemed as breaches to freedom of expression, since they put the lives and physical integrity of the journalists at risk.