BOGOTA (AFP) - Colombian newspapers said on Tuesday they are sending 52 tonnes of newsprint to independent newspapers in Venezuela so they can keep publishing.

The newsprint which is being shipped from the Colombian port of Cartagena will go to El Nacional, El Impulso and El Nuevo Pais.

Those newspapers say they are at risk of closing because the government of President Nicolas Maduro will not make sufficient hard currency available to resupply their dwindling newsprint stocks.

The shipment was arranged by the Colombian Association of Newspaper and News Media Editors.

"It is not enough to express solidarity with them and rejection of the measures that restrict freedom of the press and the right to information. We have to act," the association's executive director Nora Sanin said.

At least a dozen newspapers have stopped circulating or have reduced page numbers because of the government's delays in making available dollars needed to import newsprint.