Trade unions
IPYS (2020) counted 518 cases in 2017, 266 in 2018 and a record of 534 cases in 2019, especially during the first three months, as the self-proclamation and international acknowledgement of Juan Guaidó as Interim President led to confrontation. Similar figures were accounted by Espacio Público (2020b), with 708 cases in 2017, 387 in 2018 and 468 in 2019, to which must be added the 161 reported in the first four months of 2020 (Espacio Público, 2020a). This shows how frequent the attacks against mass media and their professionals are, what explains why the activity and relevance of trade unions have increased. The most relevant trade union in the media sector is the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Prensa (National Union of Press Workers - SNTP), member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). It focuses not only on journalists, but in all workers of the media sector. Their recent activity has focused on reporting the lack of freedom, the violation of journalists’ rights, the aggressions they are victims of and the shutting down of media. Their action has been connected with the one of other organisations, collaborating with other journalist and media workers’ associations and also with other trade unions in the defence of workers of different fields, not only of the media. Although usually associated to left-wing movements, like the one of Chávez and Maduro in Venezuela, the SNTP has taken a very critical position as control of media became a main goal of the government, increasing repression and harassment against media and its professionals.