Shadowy sale of Venezuela paper raises fears of slow-building news blackout
Through 15 years of roiling social change, the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal has been a go-to source for readers looking for tough coverage and criticism of the political upheavals brought by Hugo Chavez, the late president.
So when reporters and editors came to work one day in July and learned that the paper had been sold by the family that had owned it for 105 years, they were anxious to know why. Yet there were no farewell speeches, no tearful goodbyes, and certainly no chance to meet the new owners.
“Nothing like that,” said Juan Francisco Alonso, a reporter and union delegate. “It was total opacity.”
The anonymity of the new ownership group and a dearth of information about the sale has many Venezuelans fearing it is the latest major media company to fall to what they view as an insidious new way for the oil-rich government to neuter its critics.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/shadowy-sale-of-venezuela-paper-raises-fears-of-slow-building-news-blackout/2014/09/05/515a6ad5-0e93-4057-906f-7b35f704a336_story.html
