Media development organisations
Organisations like the aforementioned IPYS, CNP and SIP, along with NGOs Espacio Público and Medianálisis constitute some of the most respected voices in the analysis of the media scenario in Venezuela and their record of violations of freedom of speech are used by other media, both in Venezuela and abroad to prove the attacks that press receives in this country. All these groups fight for a free press that, currently, does not exist in Venezuela. The adverse conditions and the need to form a joint front has made them (at least partially) lose their particularities and carry out similar activities. They can all be considered critical with the government and have a strong relevance in the journalistic panorama, reporting attacks against journalists and defending their rights. They also organise conferences, debates or courses, but their main activity is the production of reports and researches.
The Asociación Nacional de Medios Comunitarios, Libres y Alternativos (National Association of Communitarian, Free and Alternative Media - ANMCLA), appeared in 2002 to help community media, making Venezuela a leader in the matter. Radio stations have been the most popular among community media. These media have not escaped from censorship and government influence, but they have not been harassed or made illegal like other media (Romero-Rodríguez, Torres-Toukoumidis and Aguaded, 2017). These media have been particularly relevant in small and in indigenous communities; an example could be Catia TVe, the first of these experiences, a TV station born in 2001 in a neighbourhood in Caracas. These communitarian media, when belonging to an indigenous community, are required to use of the native language according to the Ley de Idiomas Indígenas (Law of Indigenous Languages).
Additionally, there are some foundations, some of them international, such as the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation, or human rights organisations, like Provea, with a strong focus in the area of communication, that also support and defend free and independent media in Venezuela. They have also collaborated with the aforementioned organisations.