AMERICA/VENEZUELA - Bishops affirm “there is no freedom when the media only reports what interests them, concealing facts, evading reporting events, and do not allow access to the public opinion for those who are not allied with them”

Caracas (Agenzia Fides) - “The media should offer an important service, offering information on events in an objective manner; promoting the truth and justice, peace and freedom, solidarity, healthy customs, brotherhood among citizens, the demands of life; defending the dignity of the human person and his rights; guiding the minds and hearts of the people with an ethical vision.” This is what the Bishops of Venezuela stated in a statement issued at the close of the Plenary Assembly, showing their concern before the recent reports in which the various public powers announce decrees of “providence” and legislation in media material.
The Bishops continue: “In an democratic state, the various groups and institutions should find a way to offer their points of view to the public. The State should be the guarantor of this fundamental right.” Thus, they also affirm that “freedom of expression is one of the fundamental human rights that allow for man's integral development, leads him to the search for truth, and is an instrument for his participation and defense of democracy.” In this sense, the media “allows freedom of expression to be enacted.”
Furthermore, “public opinion, freedom of expression, and the right to information, along with other basic rights, constitute a true democratic state,” just as the country's constitution (Article 6) states.”
However, the Bishops regret the fact that at times the “institutions in power, for political or economic reasons, coerce the freedom of expression, manipulating the communications policies, establishing restricted norms and rules, controlling the media, and creating coercive laws that stifle freedom of expression and violate the right to information.” They also mention the danger of “irresponsible use of freedom that leads to licentiousness in expression and wounds human rights, without taking into account its limitations, which are given by the dignity of the person and the common good.”
Before this situation, the Church in the country shows its concern for the fact that certain “decrees and legislations without sufficient consultation and without consensus in this matter try to impose a certain vision on life and society.”
“There is no freedom when the media only reports what interests them, concealing facts, evade reporting events, and do not allow access to the public opinion for those who are not allied with them,” the text concludes. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 15/7/2009)