Press censorship in Venezuela

The El Nacional of Venezuela might have had it coming for spreading out in its Friday the 13th issue the  photo below of unclaimed cadavers ('muertos sin dignidad') in a Caracas morgue with a caption on the homicidal crime statistics for the first half of 2010.  The picture was reported to have been taken surreptitiously.

As a result, the 12th Tribunal of Caracas ordered the print  media on Tuesday, 17th August, to stop publishing information or pictures of violence.

The restriction on El Nacional is more severe:  no photos, information or advertising "content of blood, arms, messages of terror, physical aggressions, provocative images of war, messages about deaths (muertos y decesos) that may alter the psychological well-being of children and adolescents residing in Venezuela."

On the 18th, the newspaper in protest replaced two pictures with boxes marked CENSURADO (censored).  The top box caption reads: "If this had a picture, you would see a father crying for his son who no longer has [censored]."  According to reports, the event pages (paginas de sucesos) has been blanked out with a giant red CENSURADO printed on it, and the editor has gone on air denouncing the prohibition as unconstitutional and a violation of the freedom of expression.

Update: 19 August 2010.  Today's issue had the "O" of Nacional made up as a gagged Donald Duck look-alike, and spread out the results of the survey question "Do you think that the most important reason to feel insecure is the information supplied by the media?"

87.65% of those surveyed said "No."

Update: 27 August 2010: