Crisis: International

Venezuelan gov’t closes down TV station
TENS OF thousands of citizens took to the street—some to celebrate, others to protest—after Venezuela’s oldest television network lost its license and went off the air on May 27.
Demonstrators from both sides of the issue rallied in Caracas after President Hugo Chávez refused to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), a station allied with the opposition, after 53 years of being on the air. The BBC reported that in one of the largest demonstrations in Caracas, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at up to 5,000 protesters, some of whom threw rocks and bottles at police.
Chávez said he made the decision because the channel openly supported an April 2002 coup attempt and “became a threat to the country.” He also said the channel aired shows that failed to meet public interest standards.
But a number of press freedom groups said the closure was arbitrary and would erode free speech.
“The closure of RCTV is a serious violation of freedom of expression and a major setback to democracy and pluralism,” said Reporters Without Borders (RSF), adding, “President Chávez has silenced Venezuela’s most popular TV station and the only national station to criticize him, and he has violated all legal norms by seizing RCTV’s broadcast equipment for the new public TV station that is replacing it.”
RCTV, which airs a large number of soap operas and reality TV shows, will still be available on cable, but losing its public broadcast frequency will deprive it of most of its audience. In place of RCTV, the new state-sponsored channel TVES was launched with programs that Chávez said would better reflect society.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Venezuelan affiliate, the National Union of Press Workers said the closure could mean job losses for up to 3,000 RCTV workers.
The decision not to renew RCTV’s license has deepened the political rift in Venezuela. While thousands of protesters banged pots and marched with tape across their mouths during RCTV’s last public broadcast on Sunday, thousands of others rallied in support of the non-renewal, saying the government was right to replace a channel notorious for anti-Chávez propaganda.
Some left-wing politicians, academics, and commentators in Europe have also backed the government, citing that 90 percent of the media in Venezuela is privately owned and virulently opposed to Chávez.
“This is not a case of censorship,” said a group of prominent individuals, inclu-ding John Pilger and Howard Pinter, in a letter to the Guardian. “Imagine the consequences if the BBC or ITV were found to be part of a coup against the government. Venezuela deserves the same consideration,” they said.—IFEX

Thai radio station probed for airing Thaksin interview
A COMMUNITY radio station which received an “unexpected” call from deposed, self-exiled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra during a live program is being investigated for “operating illegally” and “undermining national security.”
Officers from the Public Relations Department, led by National Broadcasting Commission director Borworn Thecha-in, visited on May 17 the FM 87.75 station in Nonthaburi, a province north of the capital Bangkok, after the station aired the call from Thaksin the previous day.
Speaking live on local media for the first time since he was ousted, Thaksin called for swift elections to restore democracy. He was reported to have called two other radio stations—FM 92.75, the taxi drivers’ community radio, and the web-radio on the Saturday Voice Against Dictatorship website—with the same message.
Borworn denied reports that he had closed the FM 87.75 radio station and said that he was merely instructed to “investigate the station to ensure compliance with regulations” and that no program was broadcast when he was there because the equipment were being repaired.
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) is concerned that following this incident, community radio stations may be shut down as department chief Pramoj Rathavinij reportedly said this was an opportunity to deal with some 3,000 “illegal” stations across the country. He was also reported to have ordered his officials to “punish” the station that aired the Thaksin call-in for “undermining national security”.
Lacking a licensing regime, which has been pending for years, community radio stations had been operating under the protection of section 40 of the 1997 Constitution, which put radio and television transmission frequencies as national resources for use in the public interest. However, the abolition of the constitution following the September 2006 coup d’etat which threw out Thaksin has made the status of these radio stations uncertain.
Operating a radio station “illegally” can land a person in prison for up to five years, or a fine of Bht 100,000 (about US$3,007), or both.
Officials have reportedly acted on 22 community radio stations in Nonthaburi for using illegal frequencies that interfered with aviation communications.—SEAPA

Peruvian court overturns conviction of journalist’s killer
THE WIDOW of murdered radio commentator Antonio de la Torre Echeandía in Peru is pursuing a difficult and risky road to justice after the Peruvian Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a local mayor and four others in the 2004 slaying. This was according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a report, “A Mayor and a Murder.” (http://cpj.org/Briefings/2007/DA_spring_07/Mayor/mayor.html).
Dina Ramírez’s husband died after being stabbed 10 times on a street in Yungay, a small town in the western province of Áncash. After a police investigation and trial that stretched out over two years, a Superior Court panel convicted local mayor Amaro León and four others for plotting and carrying out his murder. The judges deemed that the motive—silencing De la Torre, a constant critic of the mayor—was supported by a well-documented history of animosity between the two and a series of previous attacks against the journalist and his family.
But the Supreme Court freed the defendants and overturned the verdict in a decision in 2006. Ramírez told CPJ that she and her family began receiving menacing notes and phone calls shortly after the defendants’ release.
León, she said, publicly threatened her with jail if she pressed the case further. Threatening notes were slipped under her front door, and anonymous callers warned they would kill her, “like a dog, just as my husband.”
Ramírez and the local press freedom group, Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) are now pursuing a complaint with the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that the Peruvian government violated the rights of de la Torre and his family by allowing threats, harassment, and ultimately murder to go unpunished.—CPJ/IFEX n

Comments are closed.