British Journalists Pledge Support for Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution

By Charley Allan, Hands Off Venezuela - Saturday April 14 2007

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - Britain's journalists pledged support yesterday for the Bolivarian Revolution with a near-unanimous vote to "build solidarity with the new progressive media in Venezuela, such as Vive, Telesur, Avila, Aporrea, VenezuelAnalysis and Diario Vea."

Moving the motion at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) annual conference, London delegate Hélène Mulholland criticised the mainstream media's coverage of the Venezuelan president, especially during his visit to London last year.

"According to the Daily Mail, Chávez is a Taliban-loving, drug-running dictator!" she pointed out.
The conference "noted that most coverage of Venezuela in Britain is still badly affected by deliberate attempts at spreading disinformation, for example encouraging unjustified stereotypes of the Venezuelan president as a dictator who is repressing the local media."

Speaking earlier at a packed fringe meeting co-organised by solidarity campaign Hands Off Venezuela, journalist Pablo Navarrete, who has been working in Venezuela for the past 18 months, emphasised the need for unbiased and reliable information about what's happening in the country.

Hundreds of delegates then voted to "applaud the advances made in democratising the media in Venezuela, in spite of a virulent campaign of hostility."

They also instructed the union to "help make available to journalists reliable information and organise forums where journalists can discuss the issues involved in providing fair and accurate coverage of Venezuela."

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear commented: "Our union has, once again, expressed support for the enormous social progress in Venezuela and the need for good reporting on the subject."