Venezuelan government continues attack on independent media; Alberto Federico Ravell is “Caracas Nine” dissident #3

CARACAS, Venezuela (January 17, 2008) -- Employees and directors of Globovisión, Venezuela’s only remaining independent 24-hour news and information channel, have survived more than five years of attacks and death threats for exercising their free speech. The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) released a report this week detailing human rights violations against the people who work for the TV station.

Globovisión general manager Alberto Federico Ravell and his 430 colleagues are the third case in HRF’s Caracas Nine project (www.CaracasNine.com).

Under Ravell’s leadership, Globovisión has suffered numerous attacks against its equipment, employees, and directors—attacks that the Venezuelan government has encouraged and that have been carried out by government supporters. There have been more than 25 violent attacks against journalists, cameramen, and technicians; equipment has been vandalized 17 times. Two fragmentary grenades were launched at the Globovisión headquarters in Caracas. Globovisión offices in the city of Maracaibo were also attacked and damaged. Globovisión journalists have received multiple death threats, and the government has threatened to shut down the network just as it shut down Radio Caracas Television (see www.FreeRCTV.com). Globovisión news teams have been hospitalized after being attacked in the field; cameraman Larry Arvelo, for example, was attacked on the job by government security forces on December 6, 2007. Globovisión’s 430 employees live in constant fear of being assaulted at any place and time by government partisans and agents of Venezuelan state security.

“Globovisión, like all independent media, is an instrument of free expression. Through it, many Venezuelans peacefully express their ideas—and some dissent from the policies of the Venezuelan government,” said HRF founder Thor Halvorssen. “HRF seeks protection for Globovisión, its employees, directors, and equipment, and urges the Venezuelan government to comply with the national and international rules that protect and guarantee the exercise of human rights in Venezuela, principally the right to life, property rights, and the right to freedom of expression.”

The Caracas Nine campaign promotes awareness of human rights abuses and seeks legal protection for individuals persecuted and endangered by the Venezuelan government. The nine cases featured in the campaign are emblematic of the widespread human rights abuses directed against those who openly criticize Venezuela’s government. Francisco Usón, whose case was the first taken up by HRF, was freed from prison on conditional release on December 24, 2007.

HRF is an international nonpartisan organization devoted to defending human rights in the American hemisphere. It centers its work on the twin concepts of freedom of self-determination and freedom from tyranny. These ideals include the belief that all human beings have the rights to speak freely, to associate with those of like mind, and to leave and enter their countries. Individuals in a free society must be accorded equal treatment and due process under law, and must have the opportunity to participate in the governments of their countries; HRF’s ideals likewise find expression in the conviction that all human beings have the right to be free from arbitrary detainment or exile and from interference and coercion in matters of conscience. HRF’s International Council includes former prisoners of conscience Vladimir Bukovsky, Palden Gyatso, Armando Valladares, Ramón J. Velásquez, Elie Wiesel, and Harry Wu.

Contact: Thor Halvorssen, Human Rights Foundation, (212) 246.8486, info@thehrf.org
Read more about Alberto Federico Ravell's case here