The Supreme Tribunal of Justice is always «in agreement» with the government. As if it were a web page, the Political-Administrative Chamber «blocked» the request for information of the civil association Espacio Público to find out if the Ministry of University Education, Science and Technology was manipulating the country’s internet connection.
On 13 March 2014, the NGO asked these three questions to the mentioned ministerial office:
1.- Indicate if the service has been blocked in Táchira state and/or in some other place of the country during the last days. Had there been an internet blocking, inform if it was through a government directive, name the person who gave the order and reasons for the internet service blocking.
2.- Indicate if it is true or not that here have been restrictions or blocking by CANTV against the websites ‘twimg.com’, ‘pastebin.com’, ‘bit.ly’ and against the application ‘zello.com’. If true, inform if it was through a government directive, name the person who gave the order and reasons of the same. Provide a list of the blocked web pages and dates of the blocking.
3.- Indicate if it is true or not that CANTV has blocked several news websites. If true, inform if it was through a government directive, name the person who gave the order and reasons of the same. Provide a list of the blocked web pages and dates of the blocking.
In the absence of any response, on 18 September 2014, Espacio Público went to the T.S.J. Political-Administrative Chamber to request that it demand the body to dispel the doubts it had raised. Nevertheless, the Justice Evelyn Marrero Ortiz also closed this window.
Based on the criteria expressed by the Constitutional Chamber, Marrero Ortiz rejected the request of the NGO arguing that it had not specified “the use it would give to the requested information”, neither established “what would the actions taken by the Administration be that -according to their assessment- would lead to a possible offense or irregularity affecting the citizens’ individual or collective interests”.
To top it off, the T.S.J. considered that the short questionnaire of this civil association “infringe upon the effectiveness and efficiency that should prevail in the exercise of the Public Administration and the Public Power in general”, since “such generic requests” would hinder the work of the Ministry.
The questions of Espacio Público arose in the context of the public demonstrations that as of 12 February 2014 faced the president Nicolás Maduro’s government. According to computer experts and opposition leaders, the National Executive blocked internet access in Táchira state, epicentre of the public demonstrations, while ordering the “militarization” of the entity.
On 29 April 2014, the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, questioned that Caracas used “the security forces to suppress peaceful protests and limit the freedoms of expression and assembly”. Kerry emphasized that “that has included blocking the access to certain websites and restrict access to Internet in some parts of the country”. The Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected these accusations.
According to the article 337 of the Constitution, not even in the middle of a state of exception, the government can limit “the rights to life, confinement or torture ban, the right to due process, the right to information and the other intangible human rights”.
Extracto de la sentencia
«In the case under study the plaintiff part did not explain where it is heading the control it intends to exert, neither specified the use it would give to the requested information; necessary requirements to protect the limits of the exercise of the right to information, this taking into account the Constitutional Chamber jurisprudential criteria according to which the petitioner will expressly have to manifest the reasons by which it requires the information, as well as justify that what requested be proportional with its intended use. (See judgment of the Constitutional Chamber N° 745 of 15 July 2010)”.