El Nacional (Venezuela)

El Nacional is a Venezuelan publishing company under the name C.A. Editorial El Nacional, most widely known for its El Nacional newspaper and website. It, along with Últimas Noticias and El Universal, are the most widely read and circulated daily national newspapers in the country, and it has an average of more than 80,000 papers distributed daily and 170,000 copies on weekends.[1]

El Nacional
El Nacional building
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Miguel Henrique Otero
PublisherC.A. Editorial El Nacional
Founded3 August 1943 (1943-08-03)
Ceased publication14 December 2018 (2018-12-14) (print edition)
HeadquartersCaracas
 Venezuela
Circulation20,000 (daily)
Websitewww.el-nacional.com

It has traditionally had a center-left ideology, but has recently moved to the center. The paper supported the candidacy of Hugo Chavez in 1998. Current editor and proprietor Miguel Henrique Otero founded the Movimiento 2D opposition movement, which supports the opposition electoral coalition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática.

Since the increase of censorship in Venezuela during the presidencies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, El Nacional has been described as one of the last independent newspapers in Venezuela.[2]

El Nacional published its final print edition on 14 December 2018 (after having been cut to five print editions per week back in August), joining in the dozens of anti-government newspapers in the nation that have stopped printing due to paper and toner shortages. It will become an exclusively online newspaper after the date.[3][4]

Contributors and owners

El Nacional was founded in August 1943 in Caracas by Miguel Otero Silva and is directed by Chief Editorial Officer Miguel Henrique Otero, grandson of the founder, and by Chief Executive Officer Manuel Sucre.

The newspaper's first director was poet Antonio Arráiz (1903–1962). In the newspaper have contributed many of the most recognized Venezuelan writers. Arturo Úslar Pietri, one of the most important intellectuals of the country and its director, wrote for more than fifty years in an opinion column in the newspaper. Former editors include José Ramón Medina and Miguel Otero Silva.

In 1961 an advertising boycott in opposition to the paper's leftist views (its then editor, Miguel Otero Silva, had been a member of the Communist Party of Venezuela) nearly forced the paper into bankruptcy.[5]

Editorial position and management

Historically, the newspaper received criticism by the governments under the AD and COPEI parties for it had tended to support the political beliefs of the moderate left and the middle class.[6]

In late 2007 editor and proprietor Miguel Henrique Otero founded the Movimiento 2D opposition movement, which supported the opposition electoral coalition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática in the September 2010 parliamentary election.[7]

Controversy

On 14 April 2018, government-sponsored colectivos attacked the headquarters of El Nacional, kidnapping security workers and a janitor.[8] Weeks after the Venezuelan presidential election in 2018, the newspaper had their Hypertext Transfer Protocol momentarily censored by the state-run CANTV from 7 June to 11 June 2018.[9]

The newspaper has since had its website continuously censored in Venezuela, being described as one of the last independent media organizations in Venezuela.[2] After the government pressed charges against El Nacional, proposing the payment of a fine of 1 billion bolívares, Bolivarian government official Diosdado Cabello replied to the newspaper's publishing of Venezuela's hyperinflation figures stating "if it was a billion bolívares, let's ... put five zeros next to it".[10] Cabello targeted the newspaper even further, stating in late-September 2018 that he sought to acquire the newspaper's headquarters and convert it into a university.[11]

References
  1. (in Spanish) Producto, De Caracas para Venezuela Archived 2012-04-25 at the Wayback Machine
  2. https://www.facebook.com/anthony.faiola (5 July 2018). "As it slides toward authoritarianism, Venezuela targets one of its last independent newspapers". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
  3. "Venezuela's El Nacional newspaper to cease print edition". AP NEWS. 2018-12-13. Retrieved 2018-12-14.
  4. "Venezuela's biggest daily, El Nacional, latest casualty of newsprint restrictions". Committee to Protect Journalists. 2018-12-17. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  5. Virtue, John et al (1994), Journalists in the Andes, Florida International University, p119
  6. EL PERIÓDICO EL NACIONAL DE VENEZUELA Y LAS ELECCIONES EN ESTADOS UNIDOS (in Spanish)
  7. (in Spanish) El Nacional, 26 February 2010, Movimiento 2D apoyará a Mesa de la Unidad para comicios del 26-S Archived 2011-07-10 at Archive.today. Movimiento 2D apoyará a Mesa de la Unidad para comicios del 26-S, archived from the original on 2010-03-05, retrieved 2014-09-27
  8. "Colectivos asaltan sede de El Nacional en El Silencio". La Patilla (in Spanish). 14 April 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  9. "Los bloqueos de La Patilla y El Nacional revelaron una nueva forma de censura en internet". La Patilla (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-06-12.
  10. "Diosdado dice que procesos contra El Nacional, La Patilla y Tal Cual siguen en curso (Video)". La Patilla (in Spanish). 2018-07-16. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  11. "Diosdado quiere convertir sede de El Nacional en una universidad". La Patilla (in Spanish). 2018-09-27. Retrieved 2018-09-28.
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