freedom of expression

• Those interviewed claimed to have suffered harassment and persecution, as well as threats to their physical and psychological integrity.

On August 20, the Institute for Press and Society (IPYS) published a report on Venezuelan journalists who have migrated in recent years. The document highlights that 85.63% of those surveyed (155 people) left the country due to restrictions on the practice of journalism in Venezuela.

The report called Journalists in exile. Approach to the diaspora of the Venezuelan press highlights the violation of freedom of expression, the right to information and the right of access to public information in the country suffered by communicators since 2016.

Those interviewed also mentioned various forms of aggression, but in most cases they pointed to state security agents as the perpetrators. At least 82 people identified the risk of arbitrary arrests as well-founded threats, while 77 of them highlighted censorship by the state.

Another 54 journalists reported having suffered judicial harassment, 31 of them indicated the risk of forced disappearance and 27 the risk of torture.

“All of these attacks are attributable to state agents and correspond to the situation of widespread and systematic hostility against the independent press in Venezuela,” said the IPYS report.

In addition, 84 of those surveyed highlighted the decrease in job opportunities as a result of the closure of media outlets, as well as the low salaries for journalism professionals in Venezuela as the reason for migrating for another 87 people surveyed for the report.

About the Venezuelan journalists surveyed

It was learned that 221 Venezuelan journalists surveyed (63.68%) indicated that they left Venezuela between 2016 and 2020, the years of greatest shortage of food and basic necessities in the country.

Between 2021 and 2024, 27 of the 347 people surveyed (17.29%) emigrated, indicating that the exodus of journalists has not stopped.

Nearly 40% of those surveyed have provisional identity documents formally issued by the immigration authorities of the country where they are currently located. Another 8 (4.41%) are currently processing their documentation. The report revealed that 79 journalists are in a precarious immigration situation.

“The lack of definitive identity documents often constitutes an obstacle to the integration of exiled journalists into the labour market in terms of the right to decent employment, and, therefore, to obtaining sufficient income to ensure the satisfaction of basic needs (food, health, housing, mainly) in the countries where they are located,” the document stated.

In relation to Venezuelan journalists abroad, whose main source of information is

income is from economic activities other than journalism, 64 of them said they had a permanent job, while 17 of those surveyed have piecework jobs and another 11 are freelance.

“The labor, social, and cultural integration of Venezuelan journalists in host countries must be promoted as a contribution to the development of these nations, especially because of the skills and abilities developed by those who have had to document with professional rigor, and even personally suffer, serious human rights violations such as those occurring in Venezuela,” the report detailed.

IPYS highlighted the work of Venezuelan journalists in exile in defending freedom of expression and information in Venezuela.

So far in 2024, Venezuelan communicators abroad have mobilized to the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom and Opinion of the United Nations (UN), and to the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), with the aim of exposing the various physical, psychological, and digital threats, as well as the violation of the laws governing journalistic practices by the government of Nicolás Maduro.

Journalism in exile has another place of enunciation that is not limited to the geographical, since journalistic accounts (whether to be published or simply shared on a more intimate level as testimonies) are permeated by personal experience regarding forced displacement, fleeing to a country other than one’s own to preserve life, personal integrity and freedom,” reads the report published by IPYS.

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The organization’s report also points out that the number of migrant journalists should be handled separately from that of refugees who fled Venezuela, because violations of the free exercise of journalism by members of the profession in the country could go unnoticed.

As of July 2024, data from the UN Refugee Agency show that there are 7,774,494 Venezuelans in exile. However, IPYS highlighted that knowing the exact number of communicators or press workers is a challenge, so the report took the testimonies of 347 Venezuelan journalists abroad.

The document describes journalists in exile as those professional social communicators who have been forced to flee Venezuela due to the worsening of the complex humanitarian emergency in the country, which is manifested in a widespread and systematic violation of human rights and, particularly, in restrictions on the exercise of the profession in Venezuela derived from the persecution of the independent press.

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