[NYTr] Much Ado in US Media about anti-Chavez TV Station Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 12:21:45 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - May 21, 2007 [Last Friday, the Venezuelan Supreme Court upheld a decision made by the National Telecommunications Commission not to renew the broadcast license of RCTV. Supreme Court President Luisa Estella Morales ruled that licensing issues are strictly the jurisdiction of the Telecommunications Commission, the institutional body overseeing the use of national media as a public good in accordance with guidelines set out in the 1999 constitution. Friday's decision came despite the protests of RCTV owner and media mogul Marcel Granier, who along with allies in the political opposition, staged a large public protest of the decision on Saturday. In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post today, Helena Salcedo, Director of Venezuelan National Radio, defends the non-renewal of RCTV's broadcasting license. She writes: "The expiration of RCTV's license will not affect the Venezuelan government's commitment to freedom of expression and information. Freedom of expression is alive and well in Venezuela, and the overwhelming majority of the media remain in private hands." Salcedo also mentions the creation of new, community-based media that is part of a process of democratizing access to and ownership of the airwaves in Venezuela. The government will not hold editorial control over new channels such as the public broadcaster -- TeVen -- that is among the stations set to replace RCTV. A Wall Street Journal Op-ed makes the opposite claim, charging that freedom of expression has eroded under President Chavez. A rejection of the RCTV decision by the OAS is mentioned; however, no action has proposed nor taken against Venezuela on the issue, according to recent statements made by OAS Secretary General Jose Insulza. Food shortages are the subject of the piece, which begins with a quote praising the free-market principle of allowing consumer prices to be determined by global supply and demand. A controlled exchange rate of 2,150 Bolivars to the US dollar is cited as the main source of the alleged shortages, but all governments make strategic decisions about whether to over- or under-value their currency to produce particular economic effects -- for example, making imports cheaper. Despite accusing Chavez for rejecting international markets, the piece accuses the government of "shopping abroad with dollar reserves" to stock affordable foodstuffs at supermarkets.-VIO] The Washington Post - May 21, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/20/AR2007052001030.html Letters to the Editor Freedom of Expression in Venezuela In his May 14 op-ed, "Dead Air in Caracas," Jackson Diehl misrepresented the circumstances of the expiration of Radio Caracas Television's (RCTV) broadcast license. As with other democracies, Venezuelan law allows the government the right to grant broadcast licenses, renew them or let them expire. In Venezuela these decisions are based on public interest standards and the provisions of the constitution of 1999. The expiration of RCTV's license will not affect the Venezuelan government's commitment to freedom of expression and information. Freedom of expression is alive and well in Venezuela, and the overwhelming majority of the media remain in private hands. Of the 81 television stations, 709 radio broadcasters and 118 newspapers throughout Venezuela, 79, 706 and 118, respectively, are privately owned and operated. The Venezuelan government is working to democratize access to and ownership of the media by helping to create community-based media outlets and by launching the country's first public service television station, whose content will be determined by independent users and producers -- not government officials. Unfortunately, RCTV has a history of ignoring its responsibilities to the Venezuelan people and their democracy. Since 1976 the broadcaster has been sanctioned on a number of occasions for violating its responsibilities to the public interest, and in 2002 its owner, Marcel Granier, actively supported a coup against the democratically elected government of President Hugo ChC!vez. In no country would such conduct be permitted by a media outlet; in fact, U.S. broadcasters have faced fines or license revocations for lesser offenses. HELENA SALCEDO Director Venezuelan National Radio Caracas *** Venezuela Court Dismisses TV Challenge By Fabiola Sanchez The Associated Press - May 18, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/18/AR2007051802075.html CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge by an opposition-aligned television station seeking to remain on the air despite the government's decision not to renew its license. In a decision announced late Thursday, the court declared inadmissible the challenge by Radio Caracas Television and its top executive Marcel Granier. The ruling is a setback for RCTV, a channel critical of President Hugo Chavez that is due to go off the air at midnight May 27 when the government says its license expires. It was the first of a series of petitions made by Venezuela's oldest private network to remain on the air. The station broadcasts a mix of news, talk shows, sports and soap operas. The channel's supporters argue Chavez is trying to silence criticism, while the government says it will be replaced by a public-service station and that freedom of expression is being respected. Supreme Court President Luisa Estella Morales said in a statement that it is up to the National Telecommunications Commission to decide on the renewal and revocation of broadcast licenses. The court left open the possibility that the channel could seek redress through other legal means, and other challenges are pending before the court. RCTV's Granier said Friday he expected those challenges would succeed. "I hope that in the coming days there will be some decisions, and I wait with optimism because I believe the democratic vocation, the desire for liberty and the desire to live in dignity are very important in Venezuela," he said. Granier also said he expected the court to rule shortly on whether Chavez may have overstepped his authority in the decision, saying that only the telecommunications watchdog has the power to end RCTV's license. Chavez announced in December that the government would not renew the station's license, accusing it of supporting a failed 2002 coup against him. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro warned that Venezuela's leftist government would not tolerate any outside interference in its decision take the station off the air. "Be sure that any international organization, country or group of countries that tries ... to interfere in the internal affairs, in the sovereign decisions ... of the Venezuelan government will receive an overwhelming response," Maduro said Friday. Chavez opponents plan a march in favor of RCTV on Saturday. *** Venezuelans March to Support TV Station By Elizabeth M. Nunez The Associated Press - May 19, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051900352.html CARACAS, Venezuela -- Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched Saturday to support a TV station aligned with opponents of President Hugo Chavez, whose government plans to kick the channel off the air next week by not renewing its license. The protesters set off from four different points of the capital, converging downtown in the biggest show of support yet for Radio Caracas de Television, or RCTV, a network that has been critical of Chavez's government. RCTV is due to go off the air at midnight May 27, when the government says its license expires. The channel and its supporters argue Chavez is trying to silence criticism, while the government says it will be replaced by a public-service station and that freedom of expression is being respected. "If (Chavez) shuts down the channel, he's crazy," said Rafael Velasquez, a 27-year-old construction worker who traveled 150 miles from the city of Puerto La Cruz to attend the protest. "I don't think it's fair. He has to ask the people whether they want it or not." The march was organized by the channel and 26 opposition political parties. In a speech to protesters, RCTV chief Marcel Granier urged the Venezuelan president to heed the words of South American independence icon and Chavez hero Simon Bolivar: "He who rules must listen; the people are speaking." The decision not to renew RCTV's license has been criticized abroad by press freedom groups, Amnesty International, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States and the Roman Catholic Church. Founded in 1953, RCTV is Venezuela's oldest private network and broadcasts a mix of news, talk shows, sports, soap operas and a version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" "RCTV is a stronghold of liberties, of democracy, of telling the truth," said Eladio Lares, host of RCTV's version of the popular game show. Chavez contests that, accusing RCTV and other opposition-aligned private media of supporting a failed 2002 coup against him by broadcasting cartoons and movies instead of covering street protests that aided his return to power. Government supporters also accuse RCTV of biased coverage that has glossed over improvements in medical care, education and other social programs introduced by the Chavez administration. Granier has said RCTV has the right to keep broadcasting until 2022 and challenged the government's decision in court. Venezuela's Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the first of a series of legal challenges by RCTV to remain on the air but left open the possibility for the channel to seek redress through other legal means. *** Venezuelans protest opposition TV channel closure By Christian Oliver Reuters - May 19, 2007 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051900457.html CARACAS (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesters on Saturday denounced President Hugo Chavez's plans to close an opposition television channel, accusing their leader of maiming Venezuelan democracy as he forges a socialist state. Chavez says RCTV, the country's oldest private broadcaster, supported a bungled coup against him in 2002. He has had a long-running battle with opposition television stations, calling them "horsemen of the apocalypse." "Let us defend democracy, let us defend freedom, let us defend free independent media such as RCTV," RCTV's managing director, Marcel Garnier, told demonstrators in Caracas. "Or we will allow the president to topple the country over the precipice of totalitarianism where not even his own supporters can express their opinions," he said as the crowd waved flags, applauded and blew whistles. Chavez has vowed not to renew RCTV's broadcast license when it expires on May 27. It will be replaced by a state channel showing programs that promote the values of Chavez's self-styled leftist revolution. He accuses RCTV's saucy soap operas of spreading immorality. Analysts have identified a critical media as one of the principal safeguards against the president building a Cuban-style state in the OPEC nation. Chavez, re-elected by a landslide last year, still enjoys support of about 60 percent of the public on the back of massive social spending. But a leading pollster has also found a majority of Venezuelans oppose the closure of RCTV. BELOVED SOAP OPERAS Datanalisis found almost 70 percent of Venezuelans would rather RCTV kept broadcasting, but worried more about the loss of their favorite soap operas than free speech. RCTV has been showing a nostalgic collection of clips from comedies, soap operas and Christmas specials that have been part of life in the Caribbean country since it started transmission in 1953. "It is like losing a close relative," said Renaldo Gonzalez, a student at the protest, whose family members have worked at RCTV as actors, producers and directors. During the 2002 coup against Chavez, which was led by business and military leaders, opposition channels showed cartoons and films while massive crowds of Chavez's supporters mobilized for a counterattack. Since then, Chavez has accused private television channels of manipulating the news. But on Saturday, while opposition channel Globovision showed tens of thousands of protesters swelling the streets, Venezuelan state television showed empty roads and groups of five or 10 protesters walking to the march. Housewife Maria Tintero said she was marching to support RCTV because "it tells the truth. The state channels never say what is going on in the country, about how much insecurity and poverty there is." She disagreed that it was fair to shut a channel that supported a coup against an elected leader. "The first coup, that was Chavez," she said, referring to the president's unsuccessful coup attempt in 1992. Granier told the crowd that the loss of RCTV could foreshadow a dangerous reversal of Latin American democracy. "The president has to choose between the democratic path Venezuelans want, or he can follow the terrible path where Fidel Castro, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin showed the way," he said. *** Venezuelans rally for TV station BBC News - May 20, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6673513.stm The head of the RCTV station addressed the marchers, urging them to defend freedom and "free independent media". President Chavez has said he will not renew a licence for the RCTV network which is due to expire on 27 May. He accuses the opposition-allied TV station of supporting a failed coup against him in 2002. He has referred to opposition television stations in general as "horsemen of the apocalypse" and has blamed RCTV in particular for spreading immorality with its steamy soap operas. Mr Chavez plans to replace RCTV with a government-funded TV station. Bolivar citation Marcel Garnier, RCTV's managing director, told a crowd of cheering protesters in Caracas that Mr Chavez was trying to "topple the country over the precipice of totalitarianism where not even his own supporters can express their opinions". He said the president should pay more attention to the words of Simon Bolivar, a hero of Mr Chavez famed for leading South Americans in the fight against colonialism. "He who rules must listen, the people are speaking," Mr Garnier said, quoting Bolivar. President Chavez was re-elected by a landslide last year. His welfare spending programme has won him massive support among the poor but his opponents accuse him of turning the country into an increasingly authoritarian socialist state, modelled on Fidel Castro's Cuba. *** A Circus But No Bread By Mary Anastasia O'Grady The Wall Street Journal - May 21, 2007 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117970926052909097-search.html?KEYWORDS=venezuela&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month "The characteristic feature of the market price is that it tends to equalize supply and demand." -Ludwig von Mises, "Human Action," 1949 The Venezuelan government will seize control of Radio Caracas Television on Sunday, finally making good on a threat to silence one of the country's most important independent news sources. It is no coincidence that this is happening at a time when Venezuelans are suffering a shortage of key foodstuffs. Free-speech protections in Venezuela have been steadily eroding for the past eight years, and most other television stations already practice self-censorship. With the expropriation of RCTV, there is only one other independent voice -- Globovision -- left standing. This assault on free speech has even provoked criticism by the Organization of American States, which has been silent about President Hugo ChC!vez's many other offenses against democracy. Having built his claim to legitimacy on the spurious assertion that he presides over a democracy, you can bet that Mr. ChC!vez would not have gone after RCTV unless he deemed control of TV news vital to his survival. It may indeed be. The reason is because the economy has been so mismanaged that a crisis now appears unavoidable. How it will end, in rationing and hunger or hyperinflationary madness, is hard to say. But when the whole thing comes a cropper, the last thing the president will want is TV images of popular protests that could be contagious. >From the earliest days of his presidency, Mr. ChC!vez made it clear that he intended to vastly expand the state's economic power. In 2000 he started politicizing the state-owned oil company PdVSA and hollowing out its professional engineering and marketing staffs. Shortly thereafter he took to expropriating farms, factories and apartments. When Venezuelan money began to flee, he slapped on capital controls. More recently, he has forced international oil companies to hand over Venezuelan operations and surrender majority control. He has nationalized the largest telephone company and the most important electricity utility. He is now threatening to take over the banks. As government takings always do, these assaults on property rights have badly damaged output and investment. Yet the harm has been greatly compounded by three other pernicious policies: price controls, profligate government spending and inflation of the national currency, the bolivar. Here's how ChC!vez economics "works." As petro-dollars pour into state coffers, the government takes them to the central bank to get new bolivars printed, which are then pumped into the economy through government spending. Mr. ChC!vez has also been regularly increasing wages. The result is a consumption boom. Under free prices, too many bolivars chasing too few goods would produce inflation that would show up at the supermarket checkout counter. But price controls make that impossible. Instead, serious shortages are emerging. Free prices are to an economy what microchips are to a computer. They carry information. As Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises explained in his legendary treatise 60 years ago, it is free prices that ensure that supply will meet demand. When Mr. ChC!vez imposed price controls, he destroyed the price mechanism. And so it is that the Venezuelan egg is now a delicacy, the chicken an endangered species, toilet paper a luxury and meat an extravagance. White cheese, milk, tuna, sardines, sugar, corn oil, sunflower oil, carbonated drinks, beans, flour and rice are also in short supply. The reason is simple: Producers have no incentive to bring goods to market if they are forced to sell them at unprofitable prices. Ranchers hold back their animals from slaughter, fisherman don't cast their nets, food processors don't invest in equipment and farmers don't plant. Those who do produce find it makes more sense to take their goods across the border to Colombia or to seek out unregulated (black) markets. Importers also have little incentive to work these days even though the country needs food from abroad. Some things like wheat are not grown in Venezuela. Other products like milk, sugar and potatoes are imported to supplement local supplies. But the ChC!vez government has made it difficult to buy a dollar at the official exchange rate of 2,150 bolivars and if an importer has to buy dollars at the market rate of 4,000 bolivars it is impossible to make a profit under price controls. Even imports not subject to price controls can be difficult to find since import permits and licenses, as well as dollars, are hard to come by. This is putting a crimp in more than just the food supply. According to local press reports, some 40% of the country's air fleet has been affected by delays in getting spare parts and the automotive industry's supply chain is hampered by a lack of access to dollars. Earlier this year hospitals began complaining that the servicing of medical equipment has been delayed because spare parts are not available. Hospitals are also reporting shortages of medicines for diabetics, antibiotics and hypertension drugs. Price controls on construction materials have damaged the reliability of supply. To stock the state-owned grocery stores called Mercal, the ChC!vez government goes shopping abroad with dollar reserves. Of course, Mercal shelves are often bare as well. Moreover, some enterprising government employees seemed to have learned something about market economics: The Venezuelan media is reporting that Mercal supplies are turning up for sale just across the Colombian border, where market prices prevail. Venezuelan policy makers can't be this dumb. The intention is not to feed the country but to destroy the private sector and any political power it might still have. In this environment survival independent of good relations with Mr. ChC!vez is nearly impossible. In the revolutionary handbook, capitalist producers and importers who buy things from the imperialists will be replaced by socialists living on cooperatives that will feed the country. The only trouble is that that effort is not going well, as JosC) de Cordoba reported on the Journal's front page on Thursday. Lack of knowledge, equipment, incentives and organization have left the co-ops "mostly a bust so far." To end the shortages all Mr. ChC!vez would have to do is lift the price controls. But with inflation already running above 20%, he no doubt fears the price jump that would follow. Much safer to seize RCTV and accelerate the consolidation of the military dictatorship. When the crisis comes, the chavistas will be ready. * ================================================================ .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org .List Archives: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ .Subscribe: https://olm.blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr ================================================================