Venezuelan cable television providers stopped transmitting a channel critical of President Hugo Chavez yesterday after the government cited noncompliance with new regulations requiring the socialist leader’s speeches be televised on cable.
Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), an anti-Chavez channel that switched to cable and satellite television in 2007 after the government refused to renew its over-the-air license, disappeared from TV sets shortly after midnight.
RCTV was yanked from cable and satellite programming just hours after Diosdado Cabello, director of Venezuela’s state-run telecommunications agency, said several local channels carried by cable television had breached broadcasting laws and should be removed from the airwaves.
PHOTO: EPA
Cabello warned cable operations on Saturday evening that they could find themselves in jeopardy if they keep showing those channels.
“They must comply with the law, and they cannot have a single channel that violates Venezuelan laws as part of their programming,” he said.
Several channels have not shown Chavez’s televised speeches when he orders all media to air them — a requirement under new regulations approved last month by the telecommunications agency, Cabello said.
RCTV did not broadcast a speech by the president to his political supporters during a rally early on Saturday.
The station’s removal from cable and satellite television prompted a cacophony of protests in Caracas neighborhoods as Chavez opponents leaned out apartment windows to bang on pots and pans.
Others shouted epithets and drivers joined in, honking car horns.
“They want to silence RCTV’s voice,” said Miguel Angel Rodriguez, the channel’s most popular talk show host. “But they won’t be able to because RCTV is embedded in the hearts of all Venezuelans.”
The US Embassy in Caracas expressed concern about the decision.
“Access to information is a cornerstone of democracy and provides a foundation for global progress. By restricting yet again the Venezuelan people’s access to RCTV broadcasts, the Venezuelan government continues to erode this cornerstone,” embassy spokeswoman Robin Holzhauer said.
Venezuela’s telecommunications agency has said in the past week that under new rules, two dozen local cable channels including RCTV must carry government programming when officials deem the measure necessary, just like channels on the open airwaves already do.
Chavez often uses the measure to force all the country’s TV channels and radio stations to broadcast his speeches.
Cabello said on Saturday that other violations committed by cable channels include failing to warn viewers of sexual and violent content as well as broadcasting more than two hours of soap operas during the afternoon, which should be mostly dedicated to children programming.
He did not specify which TV channels have purportedly violated the law, but RCTV said it was the target. It accused the agency of pressuring cable providers to drop channels that are critical of the government.
The agency “doesn’t have any authority to give the cable service providers this order,” RCTV said in a statement. “The government is inappropriately pressuring them to make decisions beyond their responsibilities.”
In denying RCTV renewal of its over-the-air broadcast license, Chavez accused it of plotting against his government and supporting a failed 2002 coup.
In August, Chavez’s government forced 32 radio stations and two small TV stations off the air, saying some owners had failed to renew their broadcast licenses while other licenses were no longer valid because they had been granted long ago to owners who are now dead. Officials said they planned to take more stations off the air.
Government figures say that as of 2008 about 37 percent of Venezuelan homes received cable television.
RALLYING CRY: Former US president Donald Trump has raised suspicions about why Chinese migrants are going to the US and advocacy groups worry about his rhetoric The US Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday said that it sent 116 Chinese migrants from the US back home in the first “large charter flight” in five years. The flight, which happened over the weekend, comes as Chinese immigration has become the subject of intense political debate in the upcoming US presidential election. “We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. The department said it was working with China to “reduce and deter irregular migration and to disrupt
SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTE: The Philippines prefers to handle operations on its own, and would exhaust all possible options before asking for help, the military chief said The Philippines has turned down offers from the US to assist operations in the South China Sea, after a flare-up with China over missions to resupply Filipino troops on a contested shoal, its military chief said. Tensions in the disputed waterway have boiled over into violence in the past year, with a Filipino sailor losing a finger in the latest June 17 clash that Manila described as “intentional high-speed ramming” by the Chinese coast guard. The US, a treaty ally, has offered support, but Manila prefers to handle operations on its own, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief General Romeo Brawner told
Georgian student Elene Deisadze was browsing TikTok in 2022 when she stumbled across the profile of a girl, Anna Panchulidze, who looked exactly like her. Months later, after chatting and becoming friends, they both separately learned they were adopted, and last year decided to take a DNA test. It revealed they were not only related, but identical twins. “I had a happy childhood, but now my entire past felt like a deception,” said Anna, an English student at university. Far from an innocent case of separation at birth, the sisters are among tens of thousands of Georgian children who were
ELECTION JITTERS: After a call with the party’s leadership, a DNC member said they were being asked to ignore the party’s dire predicament after last week’s debate US President Joe Biden on Saturday attended a triple-header of campaign fundraisers, seeking to reassure high-dollar donors he can still win re-election in November despite a debate performance that sparked panic among many Democrats. Accompanying him at the fundraisers in New York and New Jersey was first lady Jill Biden, who has fiercely defended her 81-year-old husband amid calls for him to step aside. “Joe isn’t just the right person for the job — he’s the only person for the job,” she told one gathering, which featured actors Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick among the cohosts. The president is facing a wave