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Tensions escalated further in Venezuela on Friday as street protests that began nine days ago continued and the government persisted in clamping down on coverage of the unrest in the broadcast media and online.

At least seven journalists for CNN International and CNN Español reported that their press credentials had been revoked, and that authorities had asked some of them when they planned to leave the country.

Confirmo que el Minci revoco las credenciales de todo el equipo de @CNNEE en Venezuela y a Los enviados especiales — Osmary Hernandez (@osmarycnn) 21 Feb 14

The move came after President Nicolás Maduro slammed CNN on Thursday for broadcasting what he called “war propaganda,” and said that if the network didn’t change its reporting he would shut down the channels. “CNN, its programming, is 24/7 war programming. They want to show the world that in Venezuela there is a civil war,” Mr. Maduro said. “If they do not rectify things, get out of Venezuela, CNN, get out!”

(This isn’t the first time Mr. Maduro has questioned CNN’s motives. Last May, he called the network “a broadcaster that works at the behest of destabilization, that calls openly for a coup d’état in Venezuela.”)

On Wednesday, CNN reported, the cameras of one of its crews were confiscated by armed men during reporting on the protests.

Still, the expulsions took some by surprise, given the lengths CNN went to to cover both sides of the protests in an increasingly polarized Venezuela. It recently interviewed the foreign minister, Elias Jaua, and other prominent Chavistas, as supporters of Hugo Chávez, the deceased president, are called. On Thursday, a news anchor, Patricia Janiot, hosted a lively back-and-forth between pro- and anti-government students.

After the government revoked her press credentials, Ms. Janiot said in a broadcast from Atlanta on Friday that she had been subjected to “harassment” at the airport as she was leaving Venezuela. She also took the opportunity to suggest that President Maduro should sit down for an interview with her.

And CNN isn’t the only media outlet under siege. Reporters have been detained, beaten and robbed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Media blackouts, arrests and a campaign of harassment against dissenting voices has become a hallmark of this administration,” the group’s deputy director said on Thursday.

At times, the government’s reach extended beyond traditional media, stifling access to news online. Last week Venezuelan Twitter users periodically lost access to photos on the platform, and this week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted, an entire city — San Cristobal, an opposition stronghold in the state of Táchira — reportedly lost Internet connectivity altogether. (El Universal reported that service was being restored Friday evening.)

International media organizations have also raised alarm about attacks on the press. Reporters Without Borders issued a scathing statement Tuesday that said it “condemns these acts of arbitrary censorship,” and added: “controlling information will do nothing but poison the current situation.”

An association of Spanish journalists also denounced the “genuine information blackout” in Venezuela and said in a statement: “The freedom of the press is a fundamental right in democracies, which is why all efforts to cut it off are a grave setback.”

Meanwhile, the list of casualties has grown. On Friday, the country’s attorney general put the death toll at eight, and said 137 other people had been injured in the continuing unrest.

Laments for the death of Genesis Carmona, a 22-year-old beauty queen who was fatally shot, spread quickly across social media. But the same attack that killed Ms. Carmona also left a lesser-known student, Enyerson Ramos, in critical condition with a gunshot wound that perforated his lung, El Mundo reported.

Wrenching video posted online showed the injured student’s aunt, Liliana Guitérrez, overwhelmed with emotion as she spoke to reporters. “Enough with ‘fascists’; we aren’t fascists. We are Venezuelans,” she said in reference to President Maduro’s affinity for referring to protesters as fascists. “Venezuelans who are hurting from all that’s happening in this country,” she said. “Here, ideas are fought with bullets.”

The governor of Carabobo, the state where the march took place, tweeted an ominous directive to government supporters Sunday night: “prepare yourselves for the sudden counterattack.”

UBCH a prepararse para el contra ataque fulminante. Diosdado dará la orden #GringosYFascistasRespeten //t.co/tRafsF9D1E — Francisco Ameliach (@AmeliachPSUV) 17 Feb 14