CARACAS: Venezuelan authorities detained three foreign journalists and a driver working for the Spanish news agency EFE on Wednesday, the company said, in the latest arrests of reporters covering US-backed efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
Colombian photographer Leonardo Muñoz was arrested with his Venezuelan driver Jose Salas while reporting on protests against the government.
Hours later intelligence officers detained Spanish reporter Gonzalo Domínguez Loeda and Colombian TV producer Mauren Barriga Vargas at their hotel, EFE’s bureau chief in Caracas, Nelida Fernandez said.
The entire team had traveled from Bogota earlier in the month.
The arrests follow the deportation of two Chilean reporters detained this week. A French diplomatic source said on Wednesday that two French reporters covering the turmoil had been arrested and that the French Embassy was seeking their release.
“Our Embassy has requested consular protection in accordance with the Vienna Convention and in particular the right of access,” the source said.
The French reporters were working for daily television program Quotidien, part of the TF1 television network. TF1 declined to comment.
Accused of election fraud, and overseeing a deep economic collapse that has led millions of Venezuelans to migrate, Maduro is facing the biggest challenge to his rule since replacing Hugo Chavez six years ago.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido has won the backing of the most countries in the Western Hemisphere since declaring himself interim president last week and calling for fresh elections.
Maduro says the strategy to topple him is a coup, led by hawks in the Trump administration such as Special Envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams, a veteran diplomat involved in the armed interventions in Central America in the 1980s.
France said on Wednesday that Maduro appeared not to be heeding calls for new presidential elections and that European foreign ministers would discuss next steps at a meeting in Bucharest on Thursday.
Venezuela detains Colombian, Spanish, French journalists
Venezuela detains Colombian, Spanish, French journalists
- The arrests follow the deportation of two Chilean reporters detained this week
- Maduro says the strategy to topple him is a coup, led by hawks in the Trump administration
Apple, Google offer app store changes under new UK rules
LONDON: Apple and Google have pledged changes to ensure fairness in their app stores, the UK competition watchdog said Tuesday, describing it as “first steps” under its tougher regulation of technology giants.
The Competition and Markets Authority placed the two companies under “strategic market status” last year, giving it powers to impose stricter rules on their mobile platforms.
Apple and Google have submitted packages of commitments to improve fairness and transparency in their app stores, which the CMA is now consulting market participants on.
The proposals cover data collection, how apps are reviewed and ranked and improved access to their mobile operating systems.
They aim to prevent Apple and Google from giving priority to their own apps and to ensure businesses receive fairer terms for delivering apps to customers, including better access to tools to compete with services like the Apple digital wallet.
“These are important first steps while we continue to work on a broad range of additional measures to improve Apple and Google’s app store services in the UK,” said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell.
The commitments mark the first changes proposed by US tech giants in response to the UK’s digital markets regulation, which came into force last year.
The UK framework is similar to a tech competition law from the European Union, the Digital Markets Act, which carries the potential for hefty financial penalties.
“The commitments announced today allow Apple to continue advancing important privacy and security innovations for users and great opportunities for developers,” an Apple spokesperson said.
The CMA in October found that Apple and Google held an “effective duopoly,” with around 90 to 100 percent of UK mobile services running on their platforms.
A Google spokesperson said existing practices in its Play online store are “fair, objective and transparent.”
“We welcome the opportunity to resolve the CMA’s concerns collaboratively,” they added.
The changes are set to take effect in April, subject to the outcome of a market consultation.
