United World Project

Workshop

“Bus TV” – creative journalism for all in Venezuela

 
12 June 2018   |   , ,
 

As a reaction to the complex crisis and the censorship that are affecting Venezuela, a group of young independent journalists from Caracas decided to get on its city buses to tell the passengers the news of the day.

There is nothing new in discussing about a crisis in Venezuela, in fact for more than five years its citizens have been facing painful circumstances caused by the corruption of their rulers.

However, this time, there is a good news concerning the creativity and capacity for improvement of Venezuelan people in the face of adversity. We are talking about BUS TV, a project that came about a year ago in the capital city, as a fruit of citizens’ protests last year in the face of evident censorship towards the media.

Although this is one of the many positive experiences in a Venezuelan society that is striving to fight against the atrocious injustices carried out by its own government, an action such as Bus TV resisted in time and even spread to other States besides Caracas.

In fact, in less than three months, they managed to set up 13 teams gathering in total more than 50 volunteers in six more States. In addition, they made agreements with several universities in the country for students of journalism, social communication, etc. to allow them for complying with their mandatory community service by taking part in this totally independent action.

Bus TV is not only a journalistic project, but also educational, because it involves students directly with the audience”, the organizers explain.

The creators of Bus TV tell us that the initiative “sought a self-definition beyond the specific political context. Journalism without intermediaries, addressing an audience with few possibilities of access to information, has been the main objective of the project, as well as that of strengthening the citizens’ rights through an independent editorial line.”

Actually, the situation in Caracas and in the rest of the country is getting more complicated every day, but Bus TV is still touring and informing approximately 2,500 passengers per month.

“In this first year Bus TV appreciated the willingness of the audience on each bus route and, above all, the good reception by the drivers, who have lowered the volume to the music every time we were about to announce the news,” conclude the promoters of this action.

As a result, every day in the city buses of Venezuela, you can get to know another face of reality, which helps to keep on believing in the struggle for transparency and justice in society.

Watch the El Bus TV video here.


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