(Apologists for caudillo and bonapatist Hugo have argued that the closing of
one media outlet was due to its participation in a coup attempt. What do you
expect they argue? This time another opposition outlet is being labeled "an
enemy of the Venezuelan people." Stay tuned for the apologia from the far
left contingent who thinks that what is happening in Venezuela is
"socialism" rather than what it really is--exotic populism and state
capitalism. MG)
http://www.miamiher
VENEZUELA
Chávez raises heat on opposition TV
Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez is threatening to silence another critical news station. Posted
on Fri, Mar. 21, 2008
By TYLER
BRIDGES tbridges@MiamiHeral
Protesters gather Feb. 9 outside
Globovision, a private 24-hour TV channel in Caracas, in support of the
channel after the Venezuelan government threatened to close it after
the station's broadcast license expires in November.
HOWARD YANES/AP
Protesters gather Feb. 9 outside Globovision, a private 24-hour TV
channel in Caracas, in support of the channel after the Venezuelan
government threatened to close it after the station's broadcast license
expires in November. »
CARACAS -- President Hugo Chávez's dismantling of the critical press
looks to be continuing as the leftist leader whips up public support to
shut down Globovisión -- less than a year after he refused to renew the
license of the country's most popular TV station.
Chávez has called Globovisión, a 24-hour news channel, ''an enemy of
the Venezuelan people,'' and one of the owners has been verbally
attacked. Fervent government supporters have called on the national tax
office to investigate the station. Hundreds rallied outside of its
offices last month.
The threats against Globovisión come months after Chávez knocked RCTV
off the commercial airwaves. RCTV had broadcast unflattering news
coverage of Chávez for years.
Alberto Ravell, a part-owner who runs Globovisión, has come under
personal attack.
''Ravell: Fascist, coup plotter, murderer, liar,'' read signs held by
Chávez supporters at one of the president's speeches late last year.
Outside observers say that silencing Globovisión would give the
president near-complete control over TV news coverage in Venezuela. An
iconoclastic view holds that the leftist Chávez won't touch Globovisión
because he needs the station as a foil.
SLIPPING IN POLLS
The tension between the news station and Chávez comes as the leftist
president has lost popular support.
The polling firm Datos, in a quarterly survey of 2,000 Venezuelans last
month, found that 34 percent said they support Chávez's government,
down from a high of 67 percent in early 2005, and the lowest level
since 2003, The Associated Press reported.
Another survey, by Venezuelan pollster Alfredo Keller, found that 37
percent of Venezuelans questioned identified themselves as Chávez
supporters in February, down from 50 percent in mid-2007, the AP
reported.
The threats against Globovisión have prompted the Inter American Press
Association to express its concern.
''It would be disastrous for the people and their right to know if
[Globovisión] were to cease operations,'
editor of a Guatemala City daily, Prensa Libre, and chairman of the
press association'
The group will hold its midyear meeting in Caracas at the end of March,
and its leaders are hoping to take their concerns directly to Chávez.
SYMBOLIC VALUE
For his part, Ravell doubts Chávez will risk trying to close the
station.
''We're kind of a trophy for the government to say that there is
freedom of expression in Venezuela,'' Ravell said in his office. Still,
he fears that the government could cite a vague 3-year-old measure --
known as the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television -- to
attempt to close down Globovisión.
The station seems to be under siege.
Twenty-foot walls topped by barbed wire encircle Globovisión in a
residential neighborhood.
In the newsroom, crime reporter Lisette Villafranca said she faces open
hostility from Chávez supporters and government officials.
''I get insulted in the streets, spat at. I've had a cup of urine
thrown at me,'' Villafranca said. ``We can't transmit live from
Miraflores [the presidential palace] or the foreign ministry.
Globovisión and RCTV are the only ones that don't have that access.''
PARTISAN MEDIA
Globovisión is hardly an oddity in Latin America, where newspapers and
television stations tend to be less neutral than their counterparts in
the United States.
Globovisión -- like RCTV -- has been strongly criticized for
broadcasting food shows and the like during the two-day coup staged
against Chávez in 2002.
Reflecting the deep polarization, pro-Chávez and anti-Chávez
demonstrators have rallied outside Globovisión.
''We're going to defend the Revolution,'
of 300 Chávez supporters outside the station one night in February.
''We won't accept any more abuses from Globovisión or the Empire,'' the
phrase that Chávez supporters use to describe the United States.
SMALL AUDIENCE
Chávez removed a thorn in his side when he refused to renew RCTV's
operating license in May. The station had a 41 percent audience share,
said Marcel Granier, who runs RCTV. Globovisión has only a 7 to 10
percent share today -- since it is mostly limited to cable.
Chávez gets mostly favorable news coverage on television now, and he
gives speeches at least once a week that are carried live for hours on
seven TV stations simultaneously.
Ravell, the son of a prominent journalist exiled by a military
government, seems to relish his status as an outsider.
One a recent day, Globovisión alone was carrying the news that masked
men had occupied the archbishop's home on historic Plaza Bolívar.
Ravell watched as Chávez supporters pushed away the Globovisión
reporter and cameraman.
''We're against you guys, for what you broadcast,'' a man who looked
like Che Guevara told the Globovisión reporter.
''Look at that,'' Ravell shouted. ``That's against us. But it's on the
air.''
Tony Spanakos, a Montclair State University professor who is in
Venezuela on a Fulbright scholarship, said the dirty secret is that
Chávez actually benefits from Globovisión. Spanakos said Globovisión
has too few viewers to threaten Chávez but enough to be used as a
political weapon.
USEFUL ENEMY
''In order to keep the most hard-core Chavistas radicalized,
said, 'you need to have some constant form of opposition. He can use
Globovisión as that constant threat. The attack on Globovisión is part
of a calculated strategy to appeal to the radicals and perpetuate the
idea that the `Revolution' is always under threat.''
If so, each side seems to need the other.
Ravell said that Globovisión is profitable, thanks in no small part to
the president's attacks.
''Our chief promoter and marketer is Hugo Chávez,'' Ravell said with a
smile. ``He made us popular.''
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