Venezuelan authorities unlock access to sites press web

“ ANDm compliance with the instructions issued by the [interina] president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela [Delcy Rodríguez], the National Telecommunications Commission informs the national population about the formal restoration of access to various national and international digital platforms and media”, explains Conatel in a statement.

The document, released on the Internet, explains that Internet service providers (ISP) operating in Venezuela have already received technical notification for the activation in their infrastructure of the domains of various information portals.

“ This measure again guarantees the direct availability of these information spaces in the country’s telecommunications networks,” he said.

In the statement Conatel “reaffirms its commitment to the regulation of the radio spectrum” of Venezuela and “the supervision of telecommunications, permanently ensuring safe, orderly and adequate access to information and communication services” for all Venezuelans.

However, the local press notes that more than a dozen web portals have been completely or partially unlocked that have been blocked for years.

According to the NGO Espacio Público (EP) and the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), “significant reductions in anomaly records” were recorded in accesses to the portals of Crónica Uno, El Carabobeño, El Pitazo, Efecto Cocuyo, El Estimulo, Caraota Digital, AlbertoNews, Al Navío, 6to Poder , TalCual, IPYS Venezuela, La Patilla, Infobae y da EP itself.

However, there are still high anomalies in access to the portals of VPItv, Sumarium, Venezuela Al Día and NTN24, among others.

According to the organization VE without Filter, accesses to portals of Alberto News, Efe, Monitoreamos, Runrunes and Revista Semana were also restored.

The daily El Nacional, critic of the regime, issued a statement denouncing that its website and other 200 web portals have remained blocked, some of them since 2014, despite Conatel's order to restore access.

The Institute of Press and Society – Venezuela (IPYS – Venezuela) has already reacted to the announcement stressing that “I have restored a right that has been restricted for years”, but asking the authorities to ensure that this does not happen again.

“ Access to journalistic information should never have depended on arbitrary blockades. Its lifting is necessary, but it also requires memory, transparency and guarantees that this will not be repeated”, he explains.

IPYS Venezuela says it has years to demand “the end of these censorship measures and greater transparency as to their implementation”.

“ The blockades have been implemented both by the state-owned company Cantv and by private suppliers, so the responsibilities to these restrictions are not exhausted in the operation of the State (...) The lifting of these blockades is a necessary step, but not enough”, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) issued a press release requiring Conatel to release all press web pages and civil society organizations in all operators and definitively.