“If the result of the sale is that El Universal changes its tone to become a pro-government outlet, that’s something that would really be a concern, because it’s a newspaper that is providing a lot of criticism at a time that the broadcast (media) is dominated by official views,” said Carlos Lauria, Americas director of the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists.
The Venezuelan president proposed an exchange of ambassadors in February, and has often stated he wishes to see the normalisation of relations on a “respectful” basis. However this process clashed with a wave of opposition protests and destabilisation attempts earlier this year, which Maduro accused the U.S. government of supporting.
The journalist Nelson Bocaranda was the first to break the news of Chávez’s illness and the only one who had first-hand knowledge of the treatments and surgeries the president underwent. Bocaranda published the information on his then eight-month-old website Runrun.es. But the government soon piled on the pressure and his radio program was cancelled. Since then his website’s traffic has grown by 20 percent each month. “Every day more and more Venezuelans go to social media platforms and websites to find the news that traditional media do not carry out of fear or because of government censorship or self-censorship,” Bocaranda says. “We are right on top of that information and we have focused on investigation much more than other digital media.”
Meanwhile, the government has increased the number of state-run TV channels. The newspaper chain that includes Venezuela’s most-read daily, Ultimas Noticias, was also sold last year and saw many of its prize-winning investigative reporters resign in dismay.
The last television station broadcasting criticism of the government, Globovision, was sold in 2013 after being fined $2 million for its coverage of a prison riot. Three local businessmen with no prior media experience bought the channel, which immediately stopped broadcasting opposition news conferences and rallies.
“In my personal opinion, due to Venezuela’s habitual conduct in recent months, I don’t think this [the exchange of representatives] is a symbol of anything, but hopefully it is,” she said to daily newspaper Ultimas Noticias.