To be perfectly honest, I must say that I don't have enough hindsight and experience at Reporters Without Borders to provide a detailed analysis of press freedom in Venezuela in 1967. However, I can say that press freedom doesn't exist without democracy. Since the coming into power of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro right afterward, there has been an ongoing and constant deterioration of press freedom in general. The legislative framework has become more and more restrictive, and journalists have fewer and fewer rights. There have been judicial persecutions, but also arrests and criminal convictions. We obviously think that a journalist has no business in a criminal court.
Without going much further back, I can say that we're seeing a steady deterioration of press freedom in general, and that the deterioration is directly linked to the social crises. Obviously, a social crisis and economic crisis go hand in hand. The seriousness of the economic crisis in Venezuela explains the social and political tensions. Each time the opposition becomes more prevalent—this was the case in Chavez's era and it's the case today with Maduro—censorship automatically grows at the same time.
That's why I was talking to you about our concerns regarding the coming weeks. This political crisis is far from being resolved. Moreover, whenever there are demonstrations and the opposition steps in and tries to assert its rights or demand a more democratic state and the rights and freedoms to which it's entitled—these situations have occurred several times a year, at least since 2016, when I joined Reporters Without Borders—and there are social and political tensions, it leads to an increase in repression, arrests, and censorship. As time goes on, the censorship takes on new forms.
With regard to the Internet, there are now some very troubling bills in Venezuela. The Maduro administration wants to create legislation to maintain control over private data. This affects all the privacy issues on the Internet. It's very troubling to have a forthcoming bill that concerns these issues.