Venezuelan court bans violent photos in newspapers

CARACAS, Venezuela — A court ordered Venezuela's newspapers on Tuesday to stop publishing photographs depicting blood, guns and other violent images and warned an opposition-aligned daily that it could face a hefty fine for publishing a photo of bodies in a morgue.

Venezuelan officials say the ruling aims to protect children and adolescents from violent images, but opponents call the move censorship and say it is motivated by a desire to control popular perceptions of crime in Venezuela, which has one of Latin America's highest murder rates.

In its ruling, the court said it prohibited the publication of "images, information and publicity of any type that contains blood, guns, alarming messages or physical aggression images that incorporate warfare content and messages about killings and deaths that could alter the well being of children and adolescents."

The decision came after El Nacional daily — a newspaper that's fiercely critical of President Hugo Chávez — published a photograph on its front page depicting dead bodies in a Caracas morgue. The image accompanied a news story examining Venezuela's failure to stem widespread violent crime.

Violent crime is one of Venezuela's most pressing problems, and Chávez foes are raising concerns ahead of legislative elections in September.

More than 12,000 murders were reported during the first 11 months of 2009, making Venezuela one of Latin America's most violent countries. Officials have not released complete homicide statistics this year.

The court notified El Nacional's editor, Miguel Henrique Otero, that the tribunal received a request for a hefty fine to be levied on the newspaper. The fine could amount to the equivalent of 2 percent of the newspaper's revenue, the court announced.

Otero said the order handed down by the court would effectively force all of Venezuela's newspapers to refrain from publishing any type of violent photographs, including news-related images from international armed conflicts.

Otero suggested that El Nacional — one of the South American nation's oldest newspapers — might defy the court order because the newspaper does not plan to change its editorial line or refrain from publishing photographs including violent content.

"This doesn't have anything to do with ... protecting children and juveniles," Otero said. "It's political."