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Taken
from Aporrea                                                                   Read Spanish Version

CARACAS,
Nov. 21, 2007 — On the eve of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s
official visit to Paris, on Nov. 20, 2007, the organization Reporters
Without Borders sent a letter to French President Nicolas
Sarkozy.

According to Reporters Without Borders’ official
Internet site, that organization "struggles to repulse
censorship and combats the laws designed to restrict freedom of the
press," which, in their view, would give them carte blanche to
interfere with, criticize and judge whatever happens in any part of
the planet.

The
message sent to the French president says that "Reporters
Without Borders has stressed the extent of the control the Venezuelan
chief of state has on the media sector, inasmuch as he has at his
disposal seven television stations, about 20 radio stations, the
telephone operation CANTV, the main national newspaper Últimas
Noticias and
about 60 local newspapers."

As to the above, Eleazar Díaz
Rangel, editor of Últimas
Noticias,
says that "out of everything that appears in that paragraph, the
only true statement is that Últimas
Noticias is
the main national newspaper. Everything else is either exaggerated or
false, such as when they say that Chávez ‘has at his disposal’
Últimas
Noticias.

"This
newspaper is considered, according to a Datanálisis poll, as a
balanced periodical, with a 74.5 percent rating (16 percent
pro-Chávez, 6 percent against Chávez)," Díaz
Rangel continues, "and I don’t have to remind you about the
denunciations we have made in corruption cases, and the criticism
that the President himself and some of his ministers have leveled at
us.

"Our
editorial policy to maintain that balance and be true to an essential
ethical principle — the truth — separates us from that selfish
classification."

In conclusion, the editor of Últimas
Noticias asks: "What authority do the Reporters Without Borders
have to evaluate the Venezuelan media? Before they do so, they should
tell us two things: One, who bankrolls them? Who pays for their many
trips to Venezuela? And two: Who elected them to that organization?"