Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez yesterday was awarded a prize from the communications department at Argentina's La Plata University for his support of "popular communication." Wow. We're assuming the award is for his stupid Twitter account? Or perhaps his talk show, Aló Presidente?

At the ceremony, Chávez told the crowd, "Long live free thought ... down with hegemony." Meanwhile, when Venezuelan newspapers and television and radio stations try to report on bourgeois things like inflation, crime and unemployment, they lose their licenses to operate or are violently attacked. Well, congrats anyway, Mr. Chávez!

[Guardian; image via AP]