Venezuela, the electoral council supervises the ballot process

teleSUR English

*World social alternative meeting tackles Wester Media campaigns *U.S. govt. funds think tanks and NOGS contracted by global media *Outlets don’t reflect transition to a new global order

Transcript

00:00Venezuelan authorities denounced a Western media campaign targeting the country's institutions.

00:04Journalists currently in Caracas for a convention of the ALBA confirm it, provide examples and

00:10discuss countermeasures.

00:13The Council of Venezuela is the institution to supervise the elections, count the votes

00:17and announce the results.

00:19Its directorate is comprised of five members, with two being from the opposition.

00:24Usually above politics, its president lost patience.

00:29Attacks have been permanent.

00:31From here I denounce the media campaign which has been paid off with dirty money.

00:38Money from drug trafficking.

00:41Money that has been robbed from you, Venezuelans.

00:44The gold that has been taken from us.

00:48They robbed us the oil seagull company, which has been in the United States.

00:56And that money is being used by foreigners to apply a campaign of destruction against

01:00the Venezuelan people, aimed at sabotaging these elections.

01:17Western media campaigns were also a topic on the second meeting for a world social alternative

01:22convened by the ALBA on 23rd and 24th of July in Caracas.

01:27Western journalists provided concrete examples.

01:30Anatoly Kurmanaev, who works for the New York Times, told me on camera, after only about

01:35ten minutes of chatting, that he regularly inserts grossly exaggerated factoids and false

01:43news into his reporting, and he and his colleagues see themselves as, quote, mercenaries for

01:50hire, and that he really works to serve an agenda.

01:55He described how he planted a story that went viral worldwide about condoms costing $750

02:01here, and he described that as a sexy trick that he and other journalists use.

02:07According to McLeod, the US government funds think tanks and NGOs which then provide information

02:13and argumentation to local oppositional journalists, contracted increasingly by international media.

02:20And so this is a perfect circle where the US government pays for the information it

02:26wants its citizens to see.

02:29Vijay Prashad, director of the Three Continental Institute for Social Research, describes how

02:34the West establishes thus a narrative.

02:37The Western media has been saying that the problem in Venezuela is corruption or the

02:43problem in Venezuela is lack of democracy.

02:46It's pretty clear that the real problem in Venezuela is it hasn't been able to sell its

02:51oil to get revenue.

02:53If Venezuela was able to get its revenue, things would be very different.

02:58So they have been suffocating this country and denying that that suffocation is happening.

03:03The British journalist says that the world is in a transition which should be reflected

03:07also in the media.

03:09And as we enter a more multipolar world, we do see media from other countries try to break

03:14through into that monopoly.

03:16What we have to do is we have to encourage that, but we also don't just need state media,

03:20we also need alternative media which will be viewer-supported or reader-supported.

03:25We need to very much encourage these things.

03:27We need to use social media as much as we can, but we also have to build our own networks

03:31and get away from corporate-controlled news.

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