German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said Tuesday it had been taken off the air in Venezuela, a day after President Nicolas Maduro described it as a “Nazi” outlet following a report on corruption in the country.
Maduro on Monday accused Deutsche Welle, which publishes in multiple languages, of running a media “campaign” against Venezuela after the publication of a video about the links between politicians and organized crime in Latin America.
“They have a little campaign directed by CNN en Espanol, CNN in general, by the Associated Press, by all those media, among them a Nazi media in Germany, Deutsche Welle… saying that all crimes in the world are committed by Venezuelans,” Maduro told state television.
He said the goal was to “tarnish Venezuela and, in the end, try to tarnish me.”
The National Union of Press Workers reported late Monday that DW had gone off the air.
DW director general Peter Limbourg called on Venezuela to restore its Spanish language channel “as quickly as possible.”
“This restriction of DW’s broadcast is a serious encroachment on the freedom of the people in Venezuela to find independent information themselves,” he said in a statement.
“Millions of people have fled Venezuela during Maduro’s rule. There is basically no press freedom. It is fitting that he would react to fact-based criticism with such absurd comparisons.”
A new DW format of YouTube-style videos targeting youth in Latin America, called “Como te afecta?” (“How it affects you?”) this week published a video on corruption in the region, including Latin America.
The program cites Transparency International which lists Venezuela as the second-most corrupt country in the world, after Somalia.
Venezuela’s Minister of Communication Freddy Nanez accused DW of “lying, defaming, and spreading hate against Venezuela” in a post on X.
Organizations which defend freedom of expression have denounced a crackdown on media in Venezuela in recent decades, with hundreds of newspapers, radio stations and television broadcasters shut down.
The government ordered CNN’s Spanish channel to be taken off the air in the country in 2017 after Maduro accused the United States broadcaster of being part of a “conspiracy” against him.
DW was temporarily suspended in 2019, in what the press union considered a retaliation for its coverage of mass opposition protests.
