Venezuela court orders TV seizure

[IndianaGreen]

Source: BBC News

Venezuela court orders TV seizure

By James Ingham
BBC News, Caracas

Venezuela's top court has allowed the government to take control of private TV transmitters as it prepares to replace commercial with state-run TV.
Radio Caracas Television, a station critical of the government, is being forced to stop broadcasting on its public frequency.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to protest against the decision this weekend.

Government supporters are planning a separate show of strength.

The court's decision will allow the Venezuelan government to demand that RCTV hands over its network of transmission sites the moment it comes off air.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6694245.stm

---

In a hypothetical comparison: imagine how the conservatives would howl if the New York Times called for the violent overthrow of the Bush regime and applauded his kidnapping and possible execution.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Venezuela's RCTV has Long Record of Law-breaking

A lot of organizations and politicians have criticized Venezuela for refusing to renew the broadcasting license of Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV.

In a press release today, the Washington-based Venezuela Information Office says the history of RCTV should be considered by Venezuela's critics:

RCTV's history of noncompliance with federal broadcasting guidelines that predate the Chavez administration. Since 1976, RCTV has been fined or temporarily closed six times, including for airing pornographic scenes, cigarette advertisements, sensationalist programming, and tendentious news coverage. Additionally, in 2002 RCTV aired programming calling on the public to take to the streets and overthrow the democratically elected president, a feat that would surely be punished by jail time and charges of treason if tried in the U.S. Yet, the station has been allowed to continue broadcasting to this day.

Venezuela's National Telecommunications Commission, which operates exactly like the US FCC, ruled that RCTV's long history of unlawful acts warranted the decision to refuse to renew the license. Venezuela's Supreme Court upheld the decision.

http://paeditorsblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/venezuelas-rctv-has-long-record-of-law.html

[lynnertic]

1. what a difference some spin makes!

thanks for posting the two stories to compare.
It's fascinating, and it reaffirms my suspicions that our poor neocon countrymen are simply lied to consistently by the media they choose (or, the media they're stuck with, when there aren't other options.)

[Judi Lynn]

2. Glad to see you included information on RCTV going back to 1976,

well before Hugo Chavez started his first term on February 2, 1999 (elected December, 1998).

The biggest asset the _Bush administration has in its war on the Venzuelan people's elected President is public ignorance of the facts. Any attempt to find out what's really going on will reward anyone who's willing to put out the effort to start getting serious about research.

A great authority on RCTV is Andrés Izarra, who used to work there, until he saw what they did during and after the coup and kidnapping of Hugo Chavez.

posted February 13, 2003 (March 3, 2003 issue)
Venezuela's Media Coup
Naomi Klein

~snip~
In Venezuela, even color commentators are enlisted in the commercial media's open bid to oust the democratically elected government of Hugo Chávez. Andrés Izarra, a Venezuelan television journalist, says that the campaign has done so much violence to truthful information on the national airwaves that the four private TV stations have effectively forfeited their right to broadcast. "I think their licenses should be revoked," he says.

It's the sort of extreme pronouncement one has come to expect from Chávez, known for nicknaming the stations "the four horsemen of the apocalypse." Izarra, however, is harder to dismiss. A squeaky clean made-for-TV type, he worked as assignment editor in charge of Latin America at CNN en Español until he was hired as news production manager for Venezuela's highest-rated newscast, El Observador on RCTV.

On April 13, 2002, the day after business leader Pedro Carmona briefly seized power, Izarra quit that job under what he describes as "extreme emotional stress." Ever since, he has been sounding the alarm about the threat posed to democracy when the media decide to abandon journalism and pour all their persuasive powers into winning a war being waged over oil.

More:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030303/klein

On edit, adding photos of former RCTV journalist, Andrés Izarra:

http://www.puntofinal.cl.nyud.net:8090/610/18Telesur-izarra1.jpg http://www.aporrea.org.nyud.net:8090/imagenes/gente/andres_izarra4.jpg http://www.talcualdigital.com.nyud.net:8090/Especiales/images/Andres-Izarra2.jpg

[1932]

4. Izarra is one of the interviewees in The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,

IIRC.

[Judi Lynn]

28. Thanks for pointing that out. Any DU'er who hasn't seen that documentary

can "git 'er done" this very day by going to this link:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144&q=%22THE+REVOLUTION+WILL+NOT+BE+TELEVISED%22&hl=en

I just checked it, it's a working link. I recall seeing him as he discussed why he left RCTV immediately after the coup.

[Judi Lynn]

3. DU'ers Say_What and rman found the scene with the coup plotters THANKING RCTV

for its help during the coup, and posted in a thread here.

First, Say_What made notes on the entire documentary, and posted the areas to check for the important details, in her post #82:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2668250#2669350

This is very helpful.

Thanks to rman, who added the SPECIFIC scene, saving us even more time:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xKLtJIRmjxE

Here's the excellent thread which had us pondering this same subject in December, 2006:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2668250#2668250

[originalpckelly]

39. Oooh wonderful, propaganda about the other dictator from the current one!

Yeah, I believe them, just like the rightwing dictator said he was given a democratic mandate Chavez says the same. I don't think I'm going to believe either one of these liars.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. OH MY GOD STATE RUN TV!

Any nation with STATE RUN TV is a STALINIST PRISON CAMP.

I am so glad that this BBC report has made it to DU. Now finally all those chavinistas here will wake up and see what is going on in that latino hell-hole.

What? The BBC is STATE RUN TV? OH MY GOD GREAT BRITAIN IS A STALINIST PRISON CAMP!

[ptolle]

7. as opposed

This is, of course, as opposed to a country that has a privately-owned and run state television as in say the fux noise machine.It's that little bit of capitalism that makes all the difference I guess.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. But we gots us our Youtube!

So its all equal now.

[Richard Steele]

8. Yup. No way they can expect "fair and balanced" news coverage now!

Poor bastards. :evilgrin:

[Forkboy]

10. LOL

:thumbsup:

[lonestarnot]

12. Our TV isn't much different.

[conspirator]

16. BBC2 is the only open channel service worth watching in UK.

The other channels are idols and big brothers and all that crap

[originalpckelly]

35. Actually, I think the UK is slowly becoming a dictatorship as well.

Just as the US is too.

I don't really think the comparison is a good one, because I was totally shocked by the TV licensing bullshit, it sounds like a fucking police state when it comes to that:

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/detectionandpenalties.jsp


"There is no excuse for watching TV without a licence-it's a criminal offence. But still people try; we've heard them all. Click here to read some of our favourite excuses."

[originalpckelly]

36. More:

"There are a number of ways we can find out. At the heart of our operation is the TV Licensing database of over 28 million home and business addresses, telling us which of these have TV Licences.

All of our enforcement officers have access to this database and will check whether or not you have a licence. If you are using a TV and are unlicensed, you could face prosecution and a hefty fine.

We have a fleet of detector vans, plus, our enforcement officers have access to hand-held detection devices capable of detecting a magnetic field when a TV is switched on. In fact, we catch an average of over 1,000 people watching TV without a licence every day."

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

41. That is idiotic. And completely restricted to the UK. It's crazy.

I mean, wouldn't it be much easier to just reserve 0.0x % of the income tax to finance BBC?

Nah, they wouldn't get their punishist jollies then.

[originalpckelly]

42. Yes, I agree, it would be easier.

And it would allow someone to own and operate a TV without being a thought criminal, err, TV criminal or whatever the hell they call them. Can you imagine that kind of crap happening in America?

I thought we had it bad, but that's just one of many things that the UK has that just scares the crap out of you and makes you wonder when big brother will show up to the party.

[NotGivingUp]

6. so sick of the spin! nt

[Igel]

9. Oddly, this is rather different from revoking the license to broadcast.

But that seems to be overlooked in the posts.

This isn't saying, "You can't broadcast". Presumably, turning off the switch to the stations would satisfy that requirement. And then the company could simply tear down the transmission towers and equipment and sell the buildings to somebody; or the company could sell the transmission facilities to other license holders.

This is saying that when you lose your license, you lose the property that went along with using the license.

(If your request for a fishing license is turned down, the wildlife service takes your bait and tackle; if you lose your car registration, the car's the state's; if your restaurant fails inspection, it's the state's.)

[Flanker]

13. Yes a case could be made that it is more

Still it would have been a mayor waste in resources to simply replace what is already there that currently works.

Closer to eminent domain than related to the case.

[IndianaGreen]

18. RCTV will still be broadcasting on cable and satellite, but not on the free public airwaves

If we were to put "public" back into public airwaves, we could get rid of hatemongers like Rush Limbaugh and shove his ass into privately owned cable and satellite.

[acmavm]

31. Oddly, this is a case of a very powerful family that owns 85% of the

freaking media trying to overthrow a democratically elected government, with CIA help no doubt. In most countries that would get you more than confiscation of your property. Treason by rich and powerful families is only excused here in the US of A. Other people, other nations, frown on a bunch of foreign government supported elitists attempting to overthrow the government they elected and put into power.

What is wrong with this place? We bitch, gripe, and harp about the social wrongs done to us here by the oligarchy that is running this country but some people seem to believe that other countries should have to live under the same conditions. Or worse.

[rucky]

14. Silly rabbit, only Right-Wingers are allowed to incite violence on the air.

Which country were we talking about, again?

[BrainGlutton]

15. I started a thread on this on the Straight Dope Message Board:

At this url: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=421013

[ohio2007]

21. Seems many on that board disagree with shutting down the opposing view

from your link;

I too never had high hopes for Chavez, and since I am very familiar with the Castro model this move does not surprise me. He's following the Castro model more or less to the letter but much slower, Chavez has been in power since 1998, so roughly 9 years to start shutting down the opposition media, and he is also talking about shutting down opposition political parties, Castro had done both those things by 1962, 3 years after taking power.

And #6 has a reply to an article I also saw about the party signup that wasn't compulsary but...you know how things went down in the German beer halls last century

[w4rma]

17. The BBC is state-run. PBS is state-run. I like the BBC and PBS. (nt)

[cal04]

19. Venezuelans Protest Chavez's TV Move

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets Saturday chanting ``Freedom, Freedom!'' to protest President Hugo Chavez's decision not to renew the broadcast license of the country's most-watched TV station, an outlet for the opposition.

(snip)
Chavez defends the decision as a legal move to democratize the airwaves by turning over RCTV's signal to a public service channel. The president and his supporters have accused RCTV of supporting a failed 2002 coup against him, violating broadcast laws and regularly showing programs with excessive violence and sexual content.

In one downtown Caracas plaza, hundreds of red-clad Chavez supporters gathered in front of a large television screen, where alleged violations by RCTV were replayed as the words, ``Tell the truth,'' rolled across the screen.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6663162,00.html

[ohio2007]

20. many in the world object to closing down the opposition voice

Chavez said: "If your even think of creating violence, you will regret it, gentlemen of the Venezuelan oligarchy and your masters in the North American empire."

from al Jazeera article;

snip

RCTV said in a statement the court decision constituted a "kidnapping of equipment," but assured it would stop broadcasting before midnight Sunday in compliance with government orders.



Late on Friday, a group of demonstrators shouting pro-Chavez slogans spray-painted the headquarters of Globovision, the country's last openly anti-government station, which Chavez has also threatened to take off the air for its critical coverage.



The closure of RCTV drew heavy international criticism including a US senate resolution last week unanimously condemning "transgression of freedom of thought and expression" in Venezuela.




http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/77BCC2AB-5664-4138-B990-9D6C68B6D776.htm

An interesting reply from another forum board;

All I see in post # 7 is articles that come down to RCTV supporting the removal of Chavez, but that's a long way from participating in the coup. Essentially they are guilty of opposing and criticizing the Chavez government which is precisely the role of the opposition.

[IndianaGreen]

23. A "US Senate resolution"? What a fucking joke from the same people that funded the war in Iraq!

They had enough facts to defund the war, but didn't. Now they pass a resolution out of sheer ignorance, or perhaps because they are indebted to the same corporate masters that Chavez is messing with in Venezuela.

[ohio2007]

26. They have as much 'teeth' in the matter as the UN

big brother will mind what the minions watch. The truth is to be told from only the one perspective that counts.

[Judi Lynn]

22. Coup Co-Conspirators as Free-Speech Martyrs:Distorting the Venezuelan media story

Media Advisory

Coup Co-Conspirators as Free-Speech Martyrs
Distorting the Venezuelan media story

5/25/07

The story is framed in U.S. news media as a simple matter of censorship: Prominent Venezuelan TV station RCTV is being silenced by the authoritarian government of President Hugo Chávez, who is punishing the station for its political criticism of his government.

According to CNN reporter T.J. Holmes (5/21/07), the issues are easy to understand: RCTV "is going to be shut down, is going to get off the air, because of President Hugo Chávez, not a big fan of it." Dubbing RCTV "a voice of free speech," Holmes explained, "Chavez, in a move that's angered a lot of free-speech groups, is refusing now to renew the license of this television station that has been critical of his government."

Though straighter, a news story by the Associated Press (5/20/07) still maintained the theme that the license denial was based simply on political differences, with reporter Elizabeth Munoz describing RCTV as "a network that has been critical of Chávez."

In a May 14 column, Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl called the action an attempt to silence opponents and more "proof" that Chávez is a "dictator." Wrote Diehl, "Chávez has made clear that his problem with Granier and RCTV is political."

In keeping with the media script that has bad guy Chávez brutishly silencing good guys in the democratic opposition, all these articles skimmed lightly over RCTV's history, the Venezuelan government's explanation for the license denial and the process that led to it.

RCTV and other commercial TV stations were key players in the April 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chávez's democratically elected government. During the short-lived insurrection, coup leaders took to commercial TV airwaves to thank the networks. "I must thank Venevisión and RCTV," one grateful leader remarked in an appearance captured in the Irish film The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. The film documents the networks’ participation in the short-lived coup, in which stations put themselves to service as bulletin boards for the coup—hosting coup leaders, silencing government voices and rallying the opposition to a march on the Presidential Palace that was part of the coup plotters strategy.

On April 11, 2002, the day of the coup, when military and civilian opposition leaders held press conferences calling for Chávez's ouster, RCTV hosted top coup plotter Carlos Ortega, who rallied demonstrators to the march on the presidential palace. On the same day, after the anti-democratic overthrow appeared to have succeeded, another coup leader, Vice-Admiral Victor Ramírez Pérez, told a Venevisión reporter (4/11/02): "We had a deadly weapon: the media. And now that I have the opportunity, let me congratulate you."

That commercial TV outlets including RCTV participated in the coup is not at question; even mainstream outlets have acknowledged as much. As reporter Juan Forero, Jackson Diehl's colleague at the Washington Post, explained (1/18/07), "RCTV, like three other major private television stations, encouraged the protests," resulting in the coup, "and, once Chávez was ousted, cheered his removal." The conservative British newspaper the Financial Times reported (5/21/07), "{Venezuelan} officials argue with some justification that RCTV actively supported the 2002 coup attempt against Mr. Chávez."
(snip/...)

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3107

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For those still clueless, please see post #3, look at the documentary clip noted, then start doing your own research.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2859398#2859442

If you doubt what you've been told which contradicts right-wing propaganda, START RESEARCHING. Read until you understand the subject. Don't let ANYONE tell you what to think. Go looking for the answers yourself.

I am certain you can do better than to swallow the disinformation you have been handed by striking out on your own, rather than accepting whatever comes along.

[conspirator]

24. RCTV was probably funded by American evil elite nt

[Judi Lynn]

29. You're kidding, right? They WERE Americans.

See this article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cm260507.html

[Judi Lynn]

25. Great article! "Zero Hour for Venezuela's RCTV"

Zero Hour for Venezuela's RCTV
by George Ciccariello-Maher

The expiration of Venezuelan broadcaster RCTV's public concession draws near: at 11:59pm on Sunday, May 27th, RCTV's concession will expire without renewal, and its space on channel 2 will be handed over to the newly-founded Venezuelan Social Television (TVes), which will begin broadcasts at 12:15am on May 28th. This sovereign decision of the Venezuelan government not to renew RCTV's concession has prompted claims that freedom of speech is somehow under threat in Venezuela.

But many discussions of freedom of speech rely on a fundamentally flawed assumption: that existing media outlets in some way embody "freedom." The debate surrounding RCTV is no exception. It is this flawed assertion that has been openly embraced by the Venezuelan opposition and equally openly challenged by those who reject efforts to paint the non-renewal of the broadcasting concession for Venezuela's RCTV as an issue of free speech at all (see my previous comments here).

Decades spent under the hegemonic shadow of the discourse of "civil society against the state" has led us to assume that all that is not under state control is free, thereby conveniently obscuring the unfreedom of economic, specifically market forces. So for the non-renewal of RCTV to be a free speech issue at all, one would have to make the ultimately doomed argument that RCTV, under the direction of Marcel Granier and media conglomerate "1 Broadcasting Caracas" (1BC), somehow represents an expression of the people's freedom rather than the freedom of its small group of shareholders.

The Oligarchy and the Media

Don't get me wrong, these shareholders are a fine bunch, and among the purest specimens of the rancid oligarchy that has controlled Venezuela since the colonial conquest. 1BC was founded in 1920 by William H. Phelps Jr. (then under the name Phelps Group), whose father emigrated to Venezuela from the United States. Phelps Jr. would marry Alicia Tucker, thereby giving rise to an oligarchic family tree of colossal proportions with 1BC and RCTV at its center. RCTV's broadcasting concession would pass from Phelps Jr. to his children Johnny Phelps and William Phelps Tucker, and the latter's wife Katherine Deery de Phelps, and finally on to Johnny Phelps' daughters Dorothy and Patricia.

More:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/cm260507.html

[IndianaGreen]

34. Foreign ownership of US ports is bad, while foreign ownership of Venezuela's media is good?

Something does not compute here!

[originalpckelly]

37. I think coporate media is bad, and I also think state-owned media is bad.

Both cases allow the bias of the owner to interfere with the quality of the content. I would prefer that TV stations be independent of the government, yet run like co-ops. It's a very democratic style of ownership, yet it is independent of the government.

The problem with socialism is that it combines the powers of the economy and the powers of the government, which is very similar to combining the legislative, executive, and judicial powers of a government into a single body. There needs to be a theory of separation of powers that extends to not only government, but any situation wherein power is available for abuse, including the economy.

Power concentrated is power more readily abused.

I fear Hugo Chavez is concentrating the powers of his country to gain more control over his people.

[Judi Lynn]

27. Documents Reveal U.S. Effort to Influence Venezuelan Journalists

Documents Reveal U.S. Effort to Influence Venezuelan Journalists

Saturday, May 26, 2007
By: Chris Carlson - Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, May 26, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)— Several major Venezuelan journalists have received all-expenses paid trips to the U.S. for courses in an apparent effort of the U.S. State Department to influence the media in Venezuela, according to recently released documents. The Venezuelan-American attorney Eva Golinger, who released the information yesterday in a press conference in Caracas, also revealed evidence of a destabilization plan against the Chavez government to take place this weekend.

Golinger is the author of The Chavez Code, which documents U.S. funding of opposition groups and U.S. involvement in the 2002 coup attempt.

Under a program named International Business Leadership Program, many Venezuelan journalists, mostly from the opposition media, but also some from the Venezuelan government, have received "scholarships" from the U.S. government to attend training courses during the years 2001-2005.

Some of the most recognized opposition journalists of the country have participated according to the documents, including Miguel Angel Rodriguez of RCTV, who received more than six thousand dollars for his participation in 2003, and Maria Fernanda Flores of Globovision among others, according to the documents obtained by Eva Golinger through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

With the supposed intention of teaching journalists about the media and journalism in the United States, the program also has the purpose of influencing how Venezuelan journalists cover events related to the U.S. foreign policy. According to the documents released, the programs denominated "Journalism IV" seek to "influence the approach and ultimately the coverage given to issues of importance to U.S. foreign policy and to strengthen the Venezuelan democratic process."

More:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2309

[subsuelo]

30. TYVM for posting this

This is another blow to the BBC in my eyes as far as objective news reporting. Not a word of RCTV law breaking was mentioned. Not a word (even AP at least mentions law violations).

Found a related article here:
Prensa Latina

[Doctor_J]

32. RCTV sounds like Fox during the 90's

"sensationalist programming, and tendentious news coverage"

"...public to take to the streets and overthrow the democratically elected president"

Sounds like Venezuela is more democratic than the US

[Doctor_J]

33. RCTV sounds like Fox during the 90's

"sensationalist programming, and tendentious news coverage"

"...public to take to the streets and overthrow the democratically elected president"

Sounds like Venezuela is more democratic than the US

[Judi Lynn]

38. Venezuela: The case of RCTV and freedom of speech

Venezuela: The case of RCTV and freedom of speech

Stuart Munckton
25 May 2007

May 27 will be end of the 20-year concession granted by the Venezuelan government to the RCTV corporation — owned by multi-millionaire Marcel Granier — to use the state-owned Channel 2 broadcasting signal. The Venezuelan government has announced that the channel will become a public station, similar to a number of stations in Europe, based on programs made by independent producers

The decision not to renew RCTV’s concession has become the focal point of the latest campaign against the government of President Hugo Chavez by the US-backed, right-wing opposition, which claims that it amounts to an attack on freedom of speech. These claims have been echoed in the corporate media around the world. A mass demonstration by opposition-supporters on May 19 was widely reported, although the counter-demonstration the following day by supporters of the government’s decision was not.

Based on the claim that the non-renewal of the concession is due to the pro-opposition stance of RCTV and is an attempt to silence critical voices, a number groups such as Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch have criticised the government’s decision. Motions criticising the decision have been passed by the US Senate, the European Union and the Chilean Senate.

However, the government has refuted the allegation that RCTV is being “closed”, as the station can continue broadcasting via satellite, or that the non-renewal amounts to an attack on freedom of speech. It has pointed out that the decision, carried out in accordance with Venezuelan law, to not renew the concession isn’t the result of RCTV being critical of the government, but a result of more than 600 violations of Venezuelan broadcasting law committed by the station, including the non-payment of fines. Not least of these violations was the role of RCTV in the US-backed military coup in April 2002 that briefly overthrew Chavez’s government.

Private TV stations, including RCTV, deliberately manipulated footage to make it appear that government forces had attacked peaceful protesters, and, after giving free advertisements and blanket coverage to opposition protesters before the coup, refused to cover the pro-Chavez uprising that restored the constitutional government. Instead, they screened cartoons and old movies. During their brief time in power, the coup plotters publicly thanked the private stations, including RCTV, for their role. Despite this, no station has been taken off air for its role in the coup. A May 18 statement by the communications ministry reported that, according to the government’s research, there have been more than 600 cases of non-renewal of TV broadcast licences around the world, but it is only the Venezuelan government that has been singled out and condemned for allegedly violating free speech.

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/711/36928

[IndianaGreen]

40. Neoliberal Democrats support the same economic interests of GOP neocons

They are both on the side of the elites of Latin America.

"Take that, Venezuela!"

-- Hillary Clinton

The Goddess of Peace did not say, "Take that, Exxon Mobile!," for a reason. If elected, Hillary or any of the other neoliberals running for President, would try to retake Latin America away from the people, and will impose corporate-friendly regimes by military force if necessary.