Venezuela: updates on media turmoil. Chavez, protests, pwnage

  • Here's a first-person account of the media turmoil in Venezuela by Rodrigo L. Arcaya, a 36-year-old Venezuelan who owns a web development company in Caracas. His bio describes him as "an iconoclastic, anti-authoritarian opponent of excess state power." On 10zenmonkeys.

  • BB reader carlosCCS in Venezuela says,

    The homepage of Ipostel, the Venezuelan postal service has been defaced, and supposedly hacked by a group that claims to support the recently closed down TV station RCTV. A logo of the defunct TV Station is shown in full flair.

    The new homepage reads something that roughly translates to: "Chavez, I will fuck up all your websites" and the credits goes to a hacker by the name of Söad. It also claims to be the ninth attack, "of the many to come". Last December many local government websites were defaced by a hacker group by replacing the homepage with many homoerotic photoshopped images that involved Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

  • BB reader Sofia says,

    "El Observador" which is the name of one of the oldest newscast shows and that was part of the prgramming of the now defunct RCTV, is now showing all its emissions: Morning, Noon and Nightly newscasts via a recently created youtube channel.

    Although internet penetration in Veneuzela is not as big as to consider this a fair alternative is the sign of a strong showing of forcefully fight for democracy, since the newscast is in no way financed with advertisement and yet it costs as much to produce as a full fledged regular airwaves broadcast production. YouTube Link.

  • TIME has an interesting piece here: Link. Here's a bunch of video from the protests: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3 Link 4 Link 5, Link 6. Wikipedia has an evolving article about the RCTV stuff here.

    Previously on BoingBoing:

  • Venezuela's TV crisis, continued: Chavez to sue CNN in world court?
  • Venezuela: Chavez to shut down a second TV station
  • Venezuelan media crackdown: the other POV
  • Venezuelan media crackdown: TV anchors sign off, mouths shut

    Reader comment: Raduga Nine points to a google video link for a Venezuela-related documentary film blogged here in an earlier post:

    [Here is a video link for] this astounding documentary about the failed April 2002 coup in that country. It really provides an excellent background to the media war that has surrounded Chavez from the start.

    The filmmakers follow Chavez around and have some interesting conversations with him inside the presidential palace before, during and after the military coup, in which he was physically plucked from the presidential palace by revolting members of the military, who (according to interviews in the film) were backed by the right-wing owners of the major private media channels. This is one of the most memorable documentaries I've ever seen — and current events make it all but essential!