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Venezuela Protests: ‘Dear International Media: Step it Up!’

Categories: Latin America, Venezuela, Citizen Media, Media & Journalism, Protest, War & Conflict

Dear International Editor:

Listen and understand. The game changed in Venezuela last night. [1]What had been a slow-motion unravelling that had stretched out over many years went kinetic all of a sudden.

What we have this morning is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you understood.

In the blog Caracas Chronicles [2] Francisco Toro reacts to the lack of media coverage about the escalating violence and the events on February 19 [3].

Francisco shows screen captures of news sites like the BBC, The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, and Fox News on the morning of February 20 –all missing articles on the violent events from the day before.

He concludes:

The level of disengagement on display is deeply shocking.

Venezuela’s domestic media blackout is joined by a parallel international blackout, one born not of censorship but of disinterest and inertia. It’s hard to express the sense of helplessness you get looking through these pages and finding nothing. Venezuela burns; nobody cares.

Let me put this clearly. Y’all need to step it up. The time to discard what you thought you knew about the way things work in Venezuela is now.

You can check out our special coverage page about the protests in Venezuela here [4].