Venezuela
Venezuela has a broad and tightly controlled state-media system. State Media Monitor maps four media organisations or outlet groups in the country: three classified as State-Controlled (SC) and one as Captured Private Media (CaPr). The State-Controlled entities are the central state-media conglomerate now publicly presented as the Sistema Nacional de Medios Públicos, formerly known as the Sistema Bolivariano de Comunicación e Información (SiBCI); the Fundación Audiovisual Nacional de Televisión (ANTV), the National Assembly’s television channel; and El Circuito Radial PDVSA, the FM radio network operated by the state oil company. The fourth, Misión Verdad, is a nominally private news and analysis portal that State Media Monitor classifies as Captured Private Media.
The first three organisations are institutionally controlled by state bodies: the communications ministry, the legislature and the state oil company. They are publicly financed or supported and operate without enforceable safeguards protecting their editorial independence. Misión Verdad represents a different model. It has no documented state ownership and presents itself as an independent, donation-supported organisation, but its editorial position is consistently aligned with the government and its content is repeatedly promoted and amplified through state and pro-government communication networks.
These institutional arrangements remained in place following the extraordinary political rupture of January 2026. On 3 January, United States forces captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas. Venezuela’s Supreme Court subsequently directed Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez to assume presidential functions, and she was sworn in as interim president on 5 January. The state-media apparatus continued operating under government control and began adjusting its output and institutional priorities to the new administration.
The central state-media conglomerate was historically known as the Sistema Bolivariano de Comunicación e Información. SiBCI was established in 2013, replacing an earlier structure called the Sistema Nacional de Medios Públicos. During 2026, the Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information (MIPPCI) again began publicly using the Sistema Nacional de Medios Públicos name while undertaking a restructuring and modernisation of the state-media system. Official communications have referred to the development of a “Sistema Nacional de Medios Públicos 3.0” and to the coordination of its outlets under the directives of the interim administration.
The system brings together the state’s principal broadcasting, print and news-agency assets. These include Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), TVes, ViVe, Ávila TV and the Caracas-based international network Telesur; Radio Nacional de Venezuela and its stations; state newspapers including Correo del Orinoco; and the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias. MIPPCI coordinates the system and openly defines its role in terms of implementing the state’s communication, information and propaganda policies.
The system is therefore classified State-Controlled. Its governing authority is part of the executive branch, its leadership and strategic direction are determined by the government, and no institutional mechanism protects its outlets from political direction. The classification has remained unchanged across State Media Monitor cycles.
ANTV began broadcasting in 2005 as Asamblea Nacional Televisión. It took its current foundation form at the beginning of 2016, following a contested restructuring in which the outgoing pro-government legislative majority transferred the channel’s operation and assets to its workers. It was renamed Fundación Audiovisual Nacional de Televisión but continued to operate as the official television channel of the National Assembly.
Despite its foundation status, ANTV remains institutionally attached to the legislature, is financed from public resources and lacks a binding editorial firewall. Its political orientation follows the majority controlling the National Assembly, which remains aligned with the government. On 5 January 2026, Jorge Rodríguez, the brother of interim president Delcy Rodríguez, was re-elected president of the National Assembly, a position he has held since 2021.
ANTV is consequently classified State-Controlled. Its legal form does not provide meaningful independence from the state institution whose activities it covers and whose political leadership determines its operating environment.
El Circuito Radial PDVSA is an FM radio network owned and operated by Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. Published accounts commonly describe it as comprising around 17 stations, although no authoritative and current station total is publicly available. A study published in 2025 found estimates ranging from 10 to 18 stations in different institutional and media sources.
PDVSA is Venezuela’s state oil company and is supervised by the Ministry of Popular Power for Hydrocarbons. Its president, Héctor Obregón, was reconfirmed in office by the interim administration in a decree published in March 2026. The radio network’s ownership therefore runs directly to a state enterprise under executive control.
Misión Verdad is a Venezuelan news and analysis portal established around 2012 to 2013. It describes itself as an independent research and analysis group focused on what it characterises as unconventional warfare, foreign intervention and disinformation directed against Venezuela. Its representatives have said that the organisation is sustained through reader donations and income earned by team members from other work, although independently verifiable information about its ownership, finances and organisational structure is limited.
The portal does not claim political neutrality. Its head of newsroom, William Serafino, has rejected what he calls the myth of independent journalism and has openly described himself and the organisation’s contributors as chavista, while maintaining that their political position does not lead them to fabricate information. Its editorial output consistently supports the government’s geopolitical and domestic narratives and attacks opposition figures, independent media and foreign critics.
Investigations into Venezuela’s pro-government information environment have documented the repeated circulation of Misión Verdad material through state and state-aligned networks. Its articles and narratives have been replicated or promoted by outlets and institutions including the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, Venezolana de Televisión, Telesur, the ruling PSUV and other government communication channels. This circulation frequently forms part of a wider system in which claims move between Venezuelan state media, pro-government portals and Russian state-backed international outlets.
State Media Monitor classifies Misión Verdad as Captured Private Media rather than State-Controlled. The classification reflects SMM’s assessment that the portal, although private in legal form and opaque in financing, is persistently integrated into the government’s communication ecosystem through its editorial alignment, institutional promotion and amplification by state-linked networks. Unlike the three State-Controlled organisations, no documented state ownership has been identified.
Venezuela has one of the most restrictive press-freedom environments in the Americas. Reporters Without Borders ranked the country 159th out of 180 countries in its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, with a score of 30.48, placing it in the organisation’s “very serious” category. Venezuela was immediately above Cuba, ranked 160th, while Nicaragua was ranked 168th.
RSF describes a media environment shaped by the state’s longstanding policy of media hegemony, initiated under Hugo Chávez and continued under Nicolás Maduro. Venezuelan organisations report that more than 400 media outlets closed during Maduro’s rule. An opaque policy governing broadcast frequencies contributed to the closure of around 200 radio stations, while independent news websites have repeatedly been blocked. The country’s broadly formulated anti-hate legislation has also been used against journalists, media workers and government critics.
Following the United States intervention of 3 January 2026 and Maduro’s capture, RSF reported that guarantees for press freedom remained deeply uncertain, although a number of detained journalists were released during the first months of the interim administration. The political transition did not dismantle the institutional structure of the state-media system. Instead, MIPPCI began reorganising the system under the new administration, while Maduro’s name and imagery became substantially less prominent in official communication and public spaces.
The apparatus therefore changed its immediate messaging and political emphasis without changing its underlying ownership, governance or dependence on state institutions.