Closing down the critics
At midnight on May 27th, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) will be cease broadcasting because the government is refusing to renew its broadcast licence.
Critics of the move point to the free speech implications of closing down a consistent opponent of President Hugo Chávez, while supporters say that the government is right to replace a channel notorious for anti-Chávez propaganda.
For 53 years, RCTV has been part of Venezuela’s cultural landscape, winning more than 40% audience share with comedies, soap operas and game shows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire. In an opinion poll last month 70% opposed the closure, although most were more concerned with the loss of their favourite soaps than with the erosion of freedom of speech.
RCTV and three other stations supported the military coup that briefly ousted Chávez in 2002 and, after he returned to power, RCTV has remained hostile with news bulletins focussing on crime, economic woes and Chávez’s increasing power.
In contrast to RCTV’s grim news agenda - which some staff admit is lopsided - state channels go to the other extreme and show scenes of happy peasants, singing children and a nation grateful for subsidised food and free medical care. On occasion government officials are criticised but never the president.
Many ordinary Venezuelans such as Marisol Torres, 55, a Chávez supporter who lives in a slum, feel uneasy about the decision and wonder if it marks a political watershed. “It’s better to have more voices,” she said. Her more immediate concern was the prospect of losing shows such as La Rochella, similar to Candid Camera, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? “It’s the best stuff on the box. Now what am I going to watch?”
RCTV’s 2,500 staff have been told to continue turning up for work after May 27 in the hope that some programmes will still be made if they can be sold to other networks, and that RCTV may be able to limp on as a cable channel. But with vastly reduced audience share and advertising revenue the station’s prospects are not good.
Moirah Sanchez, a lawyer who is leading the company’s last-ditch attempt at the supreme court to overturn the government’s decision, claims that with RCTV gone the government would achieve its stated aim of information hegemony.
Wednesday 23 May 2007 | Paul | Venezuela
Indeed, this saturday for better or for worse (but more likely for worse) my country will change forever. There’s a lot of censorship already, and even more self-censorship. The venezuelans are already in difficulties to find information and theres many things happening, I suspect, that I don’t know of. If they close RCTV as they are going to do because Chavez woke up one morning and felt like doing that, another window to freedom will be shut for Venezuelans. I’m going to protest on the streets that day, but I think that I’m going to say good bye to a lot of things I once knew, represented on that channel called RCTV
PS: I ask for apologies in advance about the grammar and spelling mistakes you might find on the lines above. Like Celia Cruz once said “my english is not very good looking”