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News reporting in Venezuela is contentious, with various sources being reported by people of differing political views to be biased, manipulative, or outright lying. By consensus across the Wikipedia community, state-operated sources of Venezuela, such as Telesur, are unreliable. Some pro-opposition outlets have also been recognized as sensationalized sources, so their use should be properly attributed. Independent sources operating in the country and in neighboring nations, several using citizen journalism, are seen as more reliable for Venezuela-specific reports.
Venezuela was listed in the 2015 Press Freedom Index as 137th out of 180 countries,[a] and its position has worsened since: in 2021 Venezuela was listed as 148 out of 180.[b] and in 2023 it was listed in the 159th place, with its situation devolving from "difficult situation" to "very difficult situation" level.[1] According to media protection organizations, Venezuelans "have been forced to find alternatives as newspapers and broadcasters struggle with state efforts to control coverage", with a growing trend of Venezuelans using online news media to bypass government censors.[2] Various interpretations of laws, including the Law on Social Responsibility on Radio and Television and the Law against Hatred, have allowed for media outlets to be closed or banned for speaking against the government or similar actions said to be non-peaceful. For political censorship in 2019, see the article on Censorship and media control during the Venezuelan presidential crisis.
Beyond limited press freedom in Venezuela, sources may need to be more heavily vetted because of the conflicting government tensions. In an article on the United States, for example, different reliable sources with noticeable political opinions can still be relied upon to give the same news; using only one or the other to source that piece of news on Wikipedia is typically not an issue. Regarding Venezuela, the disputed President Nicolás Maduro has actually criticized Wikipedia about the article on his opponent Juan Guaidó[c] during a period of edit wars in January 2019, when Wikipedia was blocked in the country for over a week, over technicalities of constitution and presidency as debated by the Venezuelan media. The different reliable sources' political opinions had found a time to shine through because of the unique situation: "facts" were unclear and "truth" depended largely on partisanship.
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- ^ "Clasificación Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa RSF 2023 | Tabla de países" [RSF World Press Freedom Index 2023 | Table of countries]. Reporters Without Borders (in Spanish). 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
- ^ Minaya, Ezequiel (7 September 2014). "Venezuela's Press Crackdown Stokes Growth of Online Media". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 19 February 2015.