IAPA regrets court ruling against Venezuelan opposition leader

http://english.eluniversal.com/2011/07/18/iapa-regrets-court-ruling-against-venezuelan-opposition-leader.shtml



--------------------
Marroquín availed himself of the visit to Quito to lash out at the attacks on freedom of expression which remain in the Latin American region. He particularly referred to stringent laws recently passed in Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador, quoted VOA News.com, the website of US Voice of America.

The IAPA president claimed that the IAPA expects to assess on site the troubles with freedom of the press. He also made reference to violent events occurred in the region last week, such as the murder of the director of a Honduran radio station; journalists in Peru and Venezuela sentenced to prison and constrained distribution of Argentinean daily newspaper Clarín.

With regard to the Venezuelan case, Robert Rivard, the chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, railed on the conviction of two years in prison for opposition leader, ex Zulia state governor and ex-presidential candidate Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, for his comments during an appearance on private news TV channel Globovisión.

-----------

IAPA's leaders Marroquín and Rivard also jumped in solidarity with Miguel Enrique Otero, the editor of Venezuelan daily newspaper El Nacional. Otero lodged a complaint against the hosts of TV show La Hojilla, aired on government-run TV channel VTV on charges of libel against him and his mother.