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34 radio stations forced off air in Venezuela
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ (AP) – 1 hour ago
CARACAS, Venezuela — Radio hosts hung their heads as their FM station was forced off the airwaves along with 33 other broadcasters targeted by President Hugo Chavez's government in what critics say is a campaign to muzzle his foes.
For the first time in decades, CNB 102.3 FM fell silent over the weekend after Venezuela's telecommunications regulators revoked some of the 34 stations' licenses and refused to renew others.
But CNB challenged the government action within hours by starting to transmit programming over the Internet. Sportscaster Juan Carlos Rutilo told his online listeners: "Today freedom of expression is being restricted. ... Today you have one less option."
Media groups and human rights activists note more than 200 other stations are under investigation for allegedly not being properly licensed and accuse Venezuela's leftist leader of pursuing a widening crackdown to silence dissent.
In a similar step, one of Chavez's leftist allies, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, announced Monday that "many" radio and TV frequencies will revert to the state over what he called irregularities in their licenses. He gave no specifics.
A majority of the stations affected in Venezuela aired criticisms of the government, though they were not overtly anti-Chavez and much of their programming ranged from American rock to salsa and traditional Venezuelan music....
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...ion-armed-raid
Venezuelan TV station is stormed by supporters of Hugo Chavez
Rory Carroll in Caracas
The Guardian, Tuesday 4 August 2009
Dozens of militant supporters of President Hugo Chavez stormed an opposition TV station yesterday in an escalation of Venezuela's "media war".
Around 30 activists with red berets forced their way into the Caracas headquarters of Globovision, lobbed tear gas and threatened staff with handguns.
The raid came amid a government crackdown on critics of Chavez's socialist revolution, a campaign which human rights groups have condemned as an attack on free speech. In recent days the government has revoked the licences of dozens of radio stations and proposed a law which would jail people deemed guilty of "media crimes" for up to four years.
Footage aired on Globovision showed activists from the UPV, a radical left-wing party which backs the president and dresses in quasi-military gear, arriving on motorbikes and rushing on foot into the station.
The intruders, led by a prominent "Chavista" named Lina Ron, waved banners and reportedly injured a guard and a police officer while tear gas seeped through the complex.
Chavez has repeatedly assailed Globovision – the South American country's last opposition TV network – as an instrument of oligarchs and US imperialists who are waging "media terrorism".
However, the government swiftly distanced itself from the raid. "We condemn this attack energetically and reject this type of violent action against Globovision," said the interior minister, Tareck El Aissami. "We don't accept that violence is the instrument to solve our differences."
Network executives rejected the condemnation as hollow. "I can only think [the attack] was an order from Miraflores," said Guillermo Zuloaga, in reference to the presidential palace. The government has named Globovision as its main target in a "media war" to rebut what it says is a campaign of lies and smears against the revolution. Authorities last month fined Globovision $2m for back taxes and officials have twice raided its president's property, saying he illegally resold cars and broke environmental regulations by keeping stuffed animals.
The government also opened an investigation against the channel for "inciting panic" after it reported on a small earthquake recently which affected Caracas....
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