US broadcaster Univision says its team was briefly detained in the Venezuelan presidential palace where they had been interviewing President Nicolás Maduro.
The incident happened after award-winning journalist Jorge Ramos showed Maduro images of Venezuelans eating from a bin lorry, the network says. Their equipment was confiscated.
Venezuela’s Information Minister Jorge Rodríguez said the government had welcomed hundreds of journalists but it did not support “cheap shows”.
Univision, the leading Spanish-language TV network in the US, said the six-member crew had been released after almost three hours but that their recording and personal belongings had not been returned.
Speaking on Univision, Ramos said Maduro “had not liked” some of the questions about “the lack of democracy in Venezuela, torture, political prisoners and the humanitarian crisis”.
“He got up after I showed him videos of young people eating out of a bin lorry,” he said of the interview at the Miraflores palace in the capital, Caracas.
“What I told Nicolás Maduro is that millions of Venezuelans and many governments around the world don’t consider him a legitimate president but a dictator.”
During their detention, Ramos and Univision Vice President María Martínez were kept for “a few minutes” in a separate room where the lights were turned off, the broadcaster said.
The Univision crew will be deported on Tuesday, Reuters news agency reports. (BBC)
