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Pulling the Plug on Anti-Chavez TV
Miguel Angel Rodríguez hosts "The Interview," in which guests lambaste President Hugo Chávez. The program appears weekdays on Radio Caracas Television.
(By Fernando Llano -- Associated Press)
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"What we have tried to do is preserve spaces for pluralism so that different opinions are heard," he said.
Government officials say RCTV has shown nothing but contempt for them. "They were part of the team of conspirators," said Saul Ortega, a congressman. "It's a subversive channel that skirts the law. In no other country would that have been permitted."
Still, the government has not filed charges against any of RCTV's directors. Officials cite the station's anti-government position as a motivation for the non-renewal of its license, set to expire at the end of May.
William Lara, the communications minister, told a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists that the station violated a vaguely worded 2004 law by broadcasting sexually suggestive programming during daylight hours. But the government has never provided the station, nor the committee, with an official detailed explanation for the non-renewal.
"The government's decision not to renew the concession is a decision that lacks transparency," said Carlos Lauria, an Argentine journalist who headed the committee's delegation. "We are worried because this can have consequences for the exercise of free expression."
Free expression is exercised in Venezuela. Another influential television station, Globovision, lambastes the government frequently, and Caracas boasts a range of newspapers, many of them with an anti-government bent.
But the government has steadily been pressuring the opposition media -- prompting a once aggressive station, Venevision, to dramatically tone down its news reports. Journalists say access to information is routinely denied, and state advertising is withheld from some opposition media outlets. The government is now planning to close many press relations offices, funneling all information through the communications minister, according to a report in El Universal newspaper.
The state funds hundreds of community radio stations and numerous newspapers. State television channels run Chavez's speeches and forums where moderators extol the virtues of the government. In 2005, the government founded Telesur, a network for Latin America that Chavez says is a leftist alternative to CNN En Espanol.
If the government follows through with its plans on RCTV, it will mark the end of an era for a station that produced the long-running humor program "Radio Rochela" and famous telenovelas such as "Through These Streets," which dealt with social tensions, and "My Fat Beauty," a humorous look at its lovable protagonist.
In RCTV's sprawling facility, which includes a network news center, studios for soaps, editing rooms and warehouses, workers are trying to stay optimistic.
Cameras roll, directors give orders from a control booth and technicians test for sound in a warren of editing rooms.
Sitting in the makeup room this week, with her hair being blow-dried, actress Hilda Abrahamz was wistful when asked about RCTV's future. She is working on the latest soap in her 25-year career at the station.
"Here, I was born as an actress," she said. "I owe my artistic career to Radio Caracas because they gave me the opportunity to start here."
