KEN-JENNINGS wrote:
Kmarion - from the BBC -
"President Hugo Chavez told his supporters to party and that is exactly what they did. But with opponents holding a rival rally not far away, the day ended with scenes of violence and disorder."
""The beautiful revolution," they sang while people dressed in red T-shirts carrying socialist messages, danced away below them.
"This station should be closed," Doris Ramirez told me.
"RCTV does no good for the country. It doesn't represent the people and it disrespects the government."
"I'm from the middle classes but I still vote for him because he's making such a difference. This TV station doesn't tell the truth."
Are you censoring this story too?
Bottom line is this - The station supported an illegal coup (allegedly with the help of US proxies). The Venezuelan equivalent of the FCC denied the license renewal. Not Chavez. This played out in the Judicial System in Venezuela for months, going to different courts. THE COURTS ruled that the denial of the license renewal was lawful and valid. If you have a problem with their legal system, fine. Don't follow the sensationalism and censorship of the media and blame this on Chavez.
If I were censoring it I wouldn't provided the link for you to read it in it's entirety. Is
CNN also responsible for the coup attempt? We are talking about
two TV stations now. You have still have not provided any evidence of the stations involvement in the coup. Are we going to allow Nazi era tactics of simply using accusations as evidence. The station is critical of the government, so they must have had a direct role in it
. Being "involved" in and assassination attempt now includes accusations of subliminal messages.
Reporters Without Borders continued: “The grounds given for not renewing RCTV’s licence, including its support, along with other media, for the April 2002 coup attempt, are just pretexts.
Other privately-owned TV stations that supported the coup attempt have not suffered the same fate because they subsequently adopted a subservient attitude towards the regime.”Directly or indirectly, President Chávez now controls almost all the broadcast media. RCTV’s closures is not, as he would have people believe, a mere administrative measure. It is a political move designed to reinforce his hegemony over the news media.
This attack on media pluralism is just the latest in a long series of press freedom violations in Venezuela that have included attacks on hundreds of journalists in recent years, a “media social responsibility” law that restricts their programming, criminal code amendments increasing the penalties for press offences, publication of a list of journalists who allegedly “sold out to US interests,” and verbal threats by Chávez against foreign journalists.
“We appeal to the international community to actively condemn this use of force and to defend what remains of the independent media in Venezuela,” Reporters Without Borders added.
Human Rights Watch :“President Hugo Chávez is misusing the state’s regulatory authority to punish a media outlet for its criticism of the government,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “The move to shut down RCTV is a serious blow to freedom of expression in Venezuela.”
The White Book accuses RCTV of “inciting rebellion,” showing “lack of respect for authorities and institutions,” breaking the laws protecting minors, engaging in monopolistic practices, and failing to pay taxes. However, it does not cite a single final judicial or administrative ruling establishing that the channel had in fact committed any of these alleged offenses during its 20–year contract.
No one from the channel has been convicted for their alleged complicity in the attempted coup. The "bottom line" is this is what happens when you do not have a separation of power.
