How Regulation in Venezuela has Affected Foreign Journalism

Though this is not a journalism class, I cannot help but discuss this topic because when we discussed regulation in class, it is an event that I immediately drew a connection to. A couple of months ago, Mexican and world-known journalist Jorge Ramos and his team in Univision travelled to Venezuela to interview Nicholas Maduro, whom considers himself President of Venezuela. I remember sitting at watching, ironically enough, a telenovela when it was interrupted by breaking news. The news was the Jorge Ramos and his camera team in Venezuela were detained where the interview with Maduro had taken place. Jorge Ramos and his team were later released and revealed to the public that Maduro, cut the interview early after some questions that Jorge asked him that weren't of his taste and  the team was put into a dark room and their cellular devices and cameras, along with the interview footage, were all confiscated. Weeks after, Univision was able to gain the interview footage back and it can be seen that Maduro felt attacked by Jorge Ramos' questioning his presidency and poor conditions of the nation. This situation related to the discussion in class that was had about outside journalism in Venezuela, and how there is physical aggression towards journalists and sometimes they are even detained for long periods of time. From the actions of Maduro's government, it can be seen that Maduro is trying to avoid any negative information about him to be revealed to the citizens of Venezuela, and therefore controls the entire media. As explained in Dr. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru's: Melodrama, reality and crisis: The government-media relationship in Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution, "government media- media relationships are both symptomatic and constitutive of a nation." This can be supported by the unjust treatment these journalists received, when the governing of a nation was put into question. I have provided a couple of links to this story if you are interesting in a more detailed version.

Jorge Ramos Explains Detainment in Venezuela

Interview of Nicholas Maduro by Jorge Ramos