[Media Watch] Responses to Journalist magazine article

Hands Off Venezuela has been very active raising the issue of solidarity within the trade union movement and, especially, within the National Union of Journalists in Britain and Ireland, which has passed two resolutions in support of the Bolivarian revolution.

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear was on the official TUC delegation to Venezuela in May this year, which met with President Chávez, and he gave a report to solidarity activists on his return.

In July, NUJ magazine the Journalist, which is distributed to all members of the union, printed an article about Chávez's visit to London, in which Jeremy Dear featured prominently.

Partly in response to this piece, journalist Nigel Fountain wrote an article for the October issue which was steeped in propaganda against Chávez and the Bolivarian revolution. This generated numerous letters of complaint, four of which were printed in the following issue. The full text of these letters is below, followed by Fountain's original article.

Worse than Bush

'SOME journalists, it appears, have even less respect for democracy than George W Bush when it comes to Venezuela. Nigel Fountain's Gripe (last issue) berates the "majority" of NUJ delegates for supporting the revolutionary political process there.

He then repeats the standard White House propaganda, smearing one of the most democratic leaders in the world as a dictator. Unlike Venezuela, it is a pity we are not allowed a recall referendum here.

Bizarrely, Brother Fountain states that Venezuela's long-standing corruption is now "laced with Chavez's brand of participatory democracy." Most people would assume that "participatory democracy" was a crucial weapon with which to combat corruption.

He claims that "the National Assembly and the judiciary have been stacked with Chavistas." The Assembly is elected democratically but the US-backed opposition boycotted the election as a propaganda tactic. The judges are indeed appointed by the government - as they are in any other country.The NUJ has voted, for two years running, to support and promote the tremendous social gains achieved under Chavez. The TUC, representing 6.7 million trade unionists, has also passed a similar resolution.

Therefore, it's entirely appropriate for our General Secretary to visit Venezuela as part of the "TUC's fact-finding trip" and then "report to activists" - unless, of course, you don't consider the democratic will of NUJ members to be important.

Fountain should refrain from regurgitating the lies of the Venezuelan oligarchy.
Rob Sewell
Dagenham, Essex

No journalists are in jail in Venezuela

THE CLAIM by the Venezuelan journalists' union SNTP and repeated by Nigel Fountain that there's an "ongoing climate of aggression and threats against media and journalists" is completely spurious and baseless. There are no journalists repressed or in jail in Venezuela, despite a daily diet of lies, slander and even calls for insurrection and assassination from the media.

It's worth remembering that the April 2002 coup and December lockout were wholeheartedly supported and partly engineered by the private media. There surely is an "ongoing climate of aggression," but it is overwhelmingly generated by the media owners towards President Chavez. The main problem in this respect seems to be that of monopoly of media ownership rather than one of freedom of expression.

As for the director of the "biggest hit in Venezuelan movie history," the cases against him - brought by individuals and not the Chavez government - have already been thrown out by the courts. Although this decision has been appealed against, the director himself told Fountain that he "would be very surprised if they put me in jail or else banned my film."

Clearly journalists need to be more careful in selecting credible sources when it comes to reporting on Venezuela.

Teresa Teran
London E1

Support for the workers

AS THE MOVER of the resolution to support Hands Off Venezuela at this year's ADM, I have to take issue with Nigel Fountain.

My branch has for many years recognised the need for truthful and free reporting of international issues and for that reason, among others, we support the Hands Off Venezuela campaign.
We don't see Hugo Chavez as a folk hero but an elected president whose policies have received endorsement by the majority of the people on eight separate occasions.

Venezuela is becoming a politically polarised society and there are some people there - including the rich who control the media - who don't like what is happening, especially when wealth and power are being redistributed to the workers (sound familiar?).

The US government is very worried that these ideas are likely to catch on at home. Our union should continue to support the progress being made by the mass of the Venezuelan workers.

Sylvia Courtnage
Chair, Book Branch

Nigel Fountain's journalist friend, who has been labelled a "State Department agent" by the Venezuelan government, is Phil Gunson, who writes for The Economist, a publication which has openly advocated "regime change" in Venezuela - the illegal overthrow of a democratically elected government. Gunson still operates freely, has suffered no consequences for his relentless anti-Chavez propaganda drive and finds his work more widely distributed now than every before.

Charley Allan, Hands Off Venezuela press officer
London N6

Original letters

Editor's note: Some of these letters have been cut. Several more were received in response to Nigel Fountain's article. Below we publish the original letters as they were sent to the Journalist.

SOME journalists, it appears, have even less respect for democracy than our old friend George W. Bush when it comes to Venezuela. Nigel Fountain's "Gripe" berates the "majority" of NUJ delegates for supporting the revolutionary political process there. 

He then repeats the standard White House propaganda, smearing one of the most democratic leaders in the world as a dictator. Unlike Venezuela, it is a pity we are not allowed a recall referendum here.

Bizarrely, Brother Fountain states that Venezuela's long-standing corruption is now "laced with Chavez's brand of participatory democracy." Most people would assume that "participatory democracy" was a crucial weapon with which to combat corruption.

He claims that "the National Assembly and the judiciary have been stacked with Chavistas." The Assembly is however elected democratically but the US-backed opposition boycotted the election as a propaganda tactic. 

The courts are appointed by the government, as they are (surprise, surprise!) in any other country.

The NUJ has voted, for two years running, to support and promote the tremendous social gains achieved under Chavez. The TUC, representing 6.7 million trade unionists, has also passed a similar resolution. 

Therefore, it's entirely appropriate for our General Secretary to visit Venezuela as part of the "TUC's fact-finding trip" and then "report 'to activists'" - unless, of course, you don't consider the democratic will of NUJ members to be important.

Fountain should refrain from regurgitating the lies of the Venezuelan oligarchy, exposed so effectively by the admiral documentary 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.' (Rob Sewell)

***

ACCORDING to Nigel Fountain's article in the last issue of The Journalist, in Venezuela "the political preferences of the entire electorate have been circulated - with ensuing blacklists and sackings." Some clarification of this wild claim is I'm afraid necessary.

Nigel is referring I presume to a list of signatories to the 2004 recall referendum against Chavez that was unearthed by one pro-government MP, who then posted it to his website. 

It was immediately condemned by Chavez and taken off the website, with the Ministry of Labour appealing for people to report any abuses to labour inspectors, but it has since been used by some sectors of the state to fire, or refuse to employ, so-called "counter-revolutionaries."

This is wrong and just serves to give ammunition to the forces of reaction, but it is worth bearing several points in mind. 

First is that exactly the same tactics have been and are being used by the US-funded political and economic opposition to Chavez. After signing in favour of the referendum against Chavez, people were given a card, which they were then required to present to their anti-Chavez bosses. No card, no job. 

Second is that this took place after two serious and deadly Bush-backed coup attempts, one in April 2002 and the other an illegal oil lock-out eight months later. A little over-zealousness on the part of the Chavistas was perhaps to be anticipated.

There are more democratic rights and political freedom in Venezuela than in any other country in the world. Shame on Nigel for peddling the Washington propaganda. He should know better by now and pay some attention instead to what the alternative to Chavez would be - a gang of Pro-Bush thugs who would make Pinochet look like a wet liberal! (Steve Jones)

***

THE claim, by Venezuelan journalists' union SNTP and repeated by Nigel Fountain, that there's an "ongoing climate of aggression and threats against media and journalists" is completely spurious and baseless. There are no journalists repressed or in jail in Venezuela despite a daily diet of lies, slander and even calls for insurrection and assassination from the media. 

It's worth remembering that the April 2002 coup and December lock-out were wholeheartedly supported and partly engineered by the private media. There surely is an "ongoing climate of aggression," but it is overwhelmingly generated by the media owners towards President Chavez. The main problem in this respect seems to be that of monopoly of media ownership rather than one of freedom of expression. 

As for the director of the "biggest hit in Venezuelan movie history," the cases against him, brought by individuals and not the Chavez government, have already been thrown out by the courts. Although this decision has been appealed against, the director himself told Fountain that he "would be very surprised if they put me in jail or else banned my film."

What is true is that his dishonest use of real footage to perpetuate a thoroughly debunked myth - that Chavistas violently attacked anti-Chavistas during the 2002 coup attempt - has enraged many in Venezuela. The director also readily admits to believing that Chavez has made no difference to the standard of living of the poor majority.

Clearly, journalists need to be more careful in selecting credible sources when it comes to reporting on Venezuela. (Teresa Teran)

***

NIGEL Fountain recounts the tale of his "encounter in Venezuela with one of the 18,000 oil workers sacked after the end of the 2003 strike."

First off, it was not a strike - it was a bosses' lock-out which attempted to illegally oust the democratically elected president, orchestrated by the exact same coup-plotters who had briefly overthrown Chavez the previous April. Plenty of evidence of sabotage at the state-owned oil company has since emerged.

Fountain continues: "The army teargassed his housing estate." Having been sacked for participating in this attack on the nation's vital strategic industry, the so-called striking oil workers, the vast majority of who were, in fact, managers and upper-echelon executives, lost their right to live in housing owned by the state oil company. 

Many refused to leave and used their inevitable legal eviction as a platform to create chaos and generate propaganda. Unfortunately, some soldiers responded to their provocations with force, including the use of teargas. This was wrong, but a violent reaction was clearly the intention of the fired oil saboteurs, who had been given ample time and opportunity to leave peacefully while other families were waiting to move in.

Evictions in London, as elsewhere, can also be violent, with far less provocation. Context is most important when reporting sensational events, especially in Venezuela. (Jason Harris)

***

REGARDING Nigel Fountain's "radical" journalist friend, who, he claims, has been labelled a "State Department agent" by the Venezuelan government, I can only assume that he is referring to Phil Gunson, a notorious anti-Chavez propagandist who is currently writing for The Economist, a publication which has openly advocated "regime change" in Venezuela - the illegal overthrow of a democratically elected government.

Interviewed on US National Public Radio during the attempted coup and illegal oil lock-out of December 2002, Gunson famously blustered: "First of all, it's not really fair to call it a coup attempt." This was at a time when pro-coup military officers had gathered in a Caracas square demanding that the military oust Chavez! 

Gunson still operates freely out in Venezuela, has suffered no consequences for his relentless anti-Chavez propaganda drive and finds his work more widely distributed now than ever before. When both he and Fountain were invited by Hands Off Venezuela to debate the pros and cons of the "Bolivarian Revolution" at the NUJ London headquarters two years ago, Gunson was a no show and Fountain refused to speak from the platform.

This "Gripe" is yet another example of the smears and half-truths that characterise most mainstream reporting of Venezuela, both in this country and around the world. It shows the urgent need for solidarity with the democratically elected government of Venezuela which, while supported by the majority of Venezuelans, is faced with fierce opposition on the part of the media owners.

Journalists should be careful not to repeat these owners' self-serving lies. (Charley Allan)

*** 

As the mover of the resolution to support HOV at this year's ADM, I have to take issue with Nigel Fountain.

When he opens his article by describing the British government as "vile" I stop expecting a reasoned argument. If he disagrees with their policies - which I strongly do when they fail to protect the interests of the working people who elected them - then I agree. But save that epithet for those dictatorships which deserve it.

Left-wing politics may not be flourishing here - because they are largely untried in this country. Yet opinion polls show that policies like renationalising the railways and proper funding of the NHS are now making sense to an awful lot of people!

Moving on to South America - we find that leftwing politics are convincing a growing number of people in more and more countries.

Recent examples are Bolivia and Mexico - although like Venezuela - the press here is remarkably silent about the things happening there.

My branch has for many years recognised the need for truthful and free reporting of international issues and for that reason, among others, we support the Hands Off Venezuela campaign.

We don't see Hugo Chavez as a 'folk hero' but an elected president whose policies have received endorsement by the majority of the people on 8 separate occasions.

Venezuela is becoming a politically polarised society and there are some people there - including the rich who control the media - who don't like what is happening, especially when wealth and power are being redistributed to the workers (sound familiar?).

Don't be swayed by one or two anecdotes. Look at the facts - like Venezuela's elimination of illiteracy, for example. Let's see more reports - like the excellent Greg Palast report featured on Newsnight as part of a recent South America series.

The United States' Government under George Bush is very worried that these ideas are likely to catch on at home. Our union should continue to support the progress being made by the mass of the Venezuelan workers. (Sylvia Courtnage)

Below is the original article published in the Journalist magazine, October/November issue.

Chavez is not a hero of mine

NIGEL FOUNTAIN wants to know why the NUJ is so committed to the government of Venezuela IN BRITAIN we have a vile government. Left-wing politics, are not, to be charitable, flourishing.
Maybe this explains what is, to me, a mystery: the ascent of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez - with his "socialism of the 21st century" - to the status of left-wing folk hero for such people as the majority at this year's NUJ Annual Delegate Meeting, which pledged the NUJ's support for the Hands Off Venezuela Campaign (HoV).

Chavez won the Presidency in 1998 because corruption had saturated Venezuela. Since then graft and corruption have been laced with Chavez's brand of participatory democracy. The National Assembly and the judiciary have been stacked with Chavistas and the political preferences of the entire electorate have been circulated - with ensuing blacklists and sackings. Bush's hostility has become a Chavez marketing tool.

The local union affiliate of the International Federation of Journalists describes an "ongoing climate of aggression and threats against media and journalists." Recently I interviewed the director of the biggest hit in Venezuelan movie history. If he returns home, he faces charges of "encouraging drug use and insulting the military": sentence, eight to 10 years.

The Hands Off Venezuela website features NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear's report "to activists" about his part in the TUC's fact-finding trip to Venezuela. The NUJ is not, thank God, affiliated to New Labour. It is, judging from HoV, affiliated to the Bolivarian republic.

The General Secretary, having asked the Chavistas what they needed, was told it was help in winning their December elections. He and Chavez had discussed making "available real information about what is going on in Venezuela, particularly from the position of my own union".
Behind the statistics, he told the London activists, "there are human stories".

I remembered my encounter in Venezuela with one of the 18,000 oil workers sacked after the end of the 2003 strike. The army teargassed his housing estate. The last I heard he and his wife were running a food stall in a shopping mall. He had voted Chavez, once, but, well, he had gone off politics.

Then there was a radical friend of mine, from the 1970s, a fine journalist and NUJ member. He has reported - at risk to himself on occasions - from around Latin America. Last year Chavez's information minister labelled him a "State Department agent" after he wrote a story on Chavez's arms purchases. "Here we have my General Secretary describing how he plans to undermine my work," he says, "by giving succour to a government that says I am part of a foreign plot to overthrow it. It makes one feel - so secure."