CPJ, partners submit shadow report to the UN on Venezuela UPR

The Committee to Protect Journalists and other six international and local organizations submitted a shadow report on freedom of expression and press freedom in Venezuela to the United Nations that will be examined during the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), at the 54th session of the UPR Working Group, scheduled for January–February 2027 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The report’s findings point to a worsening hostility against the independent press in Venezuela. The risks associated with exercising the right to freedom of expression have reached unprecedented levels, including the imprisonment of 26 media workers in last year.

The joint report warns that the Venezuelan State has failed to fully implement the recommendations it accepted during its third cycle UPR, held in January 2022. On the contrary, over the past four years, persecution of voices critical of the government has intensified through a legal framework that violates international standards and a justice system that has become part of the state’s machinery of repression.

The organizations made some recommendations to the state members including reform laws that unduly restrict freedom of expression, end arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and judicial harassment of journalists, and immediately lift arbitrary blocks on media outlets and websites.

Read the full report in English here.