28/05/2010
UK journalists and academics speak out against media bias in reporting Venezuela

A number of prominent journalists and academics spoke out against the media bias against Venezuela at a conference at SOAS, University of London.  The expert panel included former BBC Caracas correspondent Iain Bruce, writer Hugh O'Shaughnessy, head of Brazilian and Latin American Studies at the university of Middlesex Dr Francisco Dominguez, head of Journalism at the University of the West of England Dr Lee Salter and Jason De Souza a researcher at the Centre for Brazilian and Latin American Studies at Middlesex University.

Dr Lee Salter spoke about his research into the bias in BBC reporting against Venezuela.  He studied a ten year sample of articles which consistently undermined the legitimacy of President Chavez as a leader and presenting him as an outsider while the opposition were presented as the "voice of reason" and "saviours" of the nation.  Dr. Francisco Dominguez focused his talk on the Guardian's coverage, namely Caracas correspondent, Rory Carroll.  Dr Dominguez found that Carroll had repeatedly referred to President Chavez as "former tank commander" rather than President.

Jason De Souza highlighted the pro-Uribe, anti-Chavez coverage in the Economist and The Washington Post.  He cited examples where the Economist had reported figures on the number of unlawful deaths in Colombia but hadn't quoted the source to corroborate the information.  De Souza also noted that these figures were in sharp contrast to Amnesty International's figures which showed that killings in Colombia were significantly higher.  Finally, Iain Bruce spoke of his experience working for the pan-American media organisation Telesur and said that the TV Station is an "attempt to produce an alternative voice". 

Press Unit of the Venezuelan Embassy in London
Friday, 28 May 2010