When Venezuelans tune to Globovision, they see protests against faulty public services or a talk show guest saying Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez could be executed by his opponents, just like Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
Now Chavez seems to be gearing up for a final showdown with Globovision, Venezuela’s only remaining opposition television station on the open airwaves.
Broadcast regulators are investigating the all-news channel for inciting “panic and anxiety” during a minor earthquake when it criticized the government for slow response.
“We’ve been subject to dozens of investigations, but this one is undoubtedly the most absurd,” said station director Alberto Federico Ravell, a bespectacled man who relishes poking fun at the president.
Chavez has called Ravell “a crazy man with a cannon.”
“There is a crazy man with a cannon in Venezuela, but it’s not me,” Ravell said in response.
There is little neutral ground left in polarized Venezuela, and the media reflect this.
What Chavez intends to do with the TV station remains unclear.
But he seems to be building to a confrontation, demanding sanctions against Globovision again on Thursday in a speech in which he labeled TV executives “white-collar terrorists.”
Earlier this week, he threatened severe measures against any media inciting unrest.
“You are playing with fire, manipulating, inciting hatred and much more. All of you: television networks, radio stations, newspapers,” he said.
Many newspapers and radio stations that remain fiercely critical of the government. But TV is a different matter. Two formerly critical stations, Venevision and Televen, have held their tongues to avoid sanctions since they were accused of supporting a 2002 coup attempt.
Another anti-Chavez channel, RCTV, was booted off the airwaves in 2007 and now draws a much smaller audience on cable. About a fifth of Venezuelans subscribe to cable.
Globovision is the remaining counterweight to state TV.
“If Globovision is closed it would show that Chavez is crossing the line from an authoritarian government to a dictatorship,” Ravell said.
Carlos Lauria of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said he is disturbed by Chavez’s moves against Globovision.
“The consequences of a shutdown would be very damaging for Venezuela’s democracy,” he said. “The government would be consummating its effort to restrict criticism.”
The TV and radio regulatory agency, Conatel, will determine whether Globovision violated a strict law against “broadcasting messages provoking, supporting or inciting disturbances of public order.”
The station couldn’t reach the head of Venezuela’s seismological agency for comment after the May 4 earthquake, which rattled Caracas but caused no deaths or damage. So Ravell went on the air and appealed for calm, while criticizing what he called a sluggish government reaction.
The channel initially broadcast information about the 5.4-magnitude quake from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Ravell said regulators could fine Globovision or shut it down for 72 hours. If they’re found to have broken the law again, the station could face a permanent shutdown.
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