Launched May 2002 | Current status Active | |
Alexa rank 21,521 (Global, May 2015) | ||
Aporrea.org (American Popular Revolutionary Assembly) is a Venezuelan website that publishes news and opinions from the point of view of supporters of former President Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. It functions as a medium for discussion, reporting, and generating ideas with a view to the construction of 21st century socialism. The website states that they "seek to break the media siege imposed by private media committed to the coup and counter-revolutionary conspiracy in Venezuela, manifestation of imperialist globalization, against which we fought also with the other peoples of the world".
Contents
History
Aporrea.org was created after the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt to "defend the gains of the 1999 Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the will of the people". The site was created by Gonzalo Gómez and Martín Sánchez, who withdrew in 2004 to take up a post as diplomat for the Venezuelan government.
Policies
Aporrea.org, according to its website, does not support any kind of discrimination based on "race, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, religious affiliation, gender, disability status, skin color, accent when speaking, etc.". The website lists rules for opinion articles, one of which asks that users "try to be respectful, especially when referring to other columnists of Aporrea or figures of the Bolivarian Government or the left in general, with whom you may have disagreements. We suggest that criticisms and replies to other articles be restricted to responding to arguments, not personal attacks or insults. We reserve the right to reject material which offends, defames, or humiliates others".
Critical reception
According to Manuel Laya of the Communist Party of Venezuela, Aporrea.org no longer serves its original purpose and was an instrument of the Fifth Column to hinder the flow of information.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Aporrea.org has "anti-Semitic" and "Anti-Zionist" content that is "worrying" and presented multiple articles which they found offensive in their Antisemitismo en Venezuela report. The Simon Wiesenthal Center also criticized anti-Semitic commentary on the website. Several other organizations have also criticised the website for anti-Semitic ideas.