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Protests, celebrations planned over Venezuela TV station closure
By Rafael Noboa
AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 05 28 07Venezuelans on Sunday take to the street to protest -- and celebrate -- President Hugo Chavez's decision to force the country's largest private television station off the air.
Radio Caracas Television, the country's oldest network, turns off its broadcast signal at midnight Sunday after the government refused to renew its license.
The network has been running a day-long farewell program called "A friend is for always," but employees have vowed to continue to occupy the studios overnight, possibly to hinder their handover to the government on Monday.
Thousands marched against the decision on Saturday, banging pots and chanting anti-government slogans. More protests are scheduled for Sunday.
"This is Venezuela, not Cuba!" chanted protesters rallying outside RCTV studios Saturday. "We have what it takes to fight!"
RCTV, which notably airs popular soap operas and variety shows, has one of the largest audiences in Venezuela. The frequency will now go to TVes, a new public service channel established with four million dollars in start-up money.
Chavez supporters are organizing what they describe as a huge, night-to-dawn public party starting late Sunday, to celebrate the birth of the new "socialist television" and the end of the bitterly anti-Chavez RCTV.
RCTV owner Marcel Granier was still hoping for a miracle.
"Lets hope that before midnight he will come to reason," he told an RCTV reporter Sunday morning referring to the president. "There's a lot of abuse going on with serious consequences. He has a chance to correct his mistake."
Chavez announced the decision to revoke RCTV's license after 54 years on the air soon after he was re-elected in late 2006. During the campaign, RCTV openly called for the president's defeat, and Chavez never forgave the network for supporting the April 2002 coup that deposed him for 47 hours.
In a late Saturday speech, Chavez appealed for calm, warning of a tough military response if the protests turn violent.
"The decision was mine" to close RCTV, Chavez said, calling its steamy soaps "a danger for the country, for boys, for girls."
Chavez has gradually tightened his grip on the levers of power in Venezuela, and in January the National Assembly allowed him to rule by decree, without legislative debate.
An RCTV statement called the move "unconstitutional and illegal," and the El Nacional daily in a front-page editorial said RCTV's shutdown marked "the end of pluralism" in Venezuela and the government's growing "information monopoly."
Venezuela's Supreme Court ruled late Friday that RCTV must temporarily leave its equipment and broadcast infrastructure in military hands when it goes off the air to ensure that TVes can provide quality service.
Chavez said the RCTV owners "had a plan to sabotage the new channel's signal."
Also Friday, the Venezuelan government renewed the broadcast license for Venevision, RCTV's main competitor. Venevision, owned by billionaire Gustavo Cisneros, dropped its open opposition to Chavez in 2004.
Criticism of the RCTV closedown has poured in from around the world, including groups like Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and the US Senate, which unanimously approved a resolution last week expressing "profound concern" over the move.
AFP 27 2049 GMT 05 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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