RCTV banned again
Back in May, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) was forced to cease broadcasting after the government refused to renew its broadcast licence. The station reinvented itself as RCTV Internacional, broadcasting by cable and satellite.
Now, IFEX (via) reports, a “spurious, last-minute legal pretext” was used to force the channel suspend broadcasting for the second time. The grounds cited by the government were that the privately-owned station was not a “national audiovisual producer.”
“This time, the censorship of RCTV is complete,” the press freedom organisation said. “The Venezuelan government wanted the station to disappear, in Venezuela, at least. First it excluded RCTV from the terrestrial broadcast frequencies. Now it is preventing it from broadcasting by cable and satellite. This second phase of the RCTV affair raises several questions.”
Firstly, if the Radio and TV Social Responsibility Law of 2004 and the regulations of the National Commission for Telecommunications (Conatel) really do require cable and satellite stations - even internationally-structured ones such as RCTV Internacional - to be registered as “national audiovisual producers,” as is the case for terrestrial broadcasters, why was this requirement not previously enforced with all the others?
Secondly, why did the Venezuelan Chamber of Subscription Television remember that the 45 other pay-TV channels should also have to register as “national audiovisual producers” only after it had already given RCTV Internacional five days to do so? And why were the others given 10 days?
Thirdly, why did the communication and information minister wait until RCTV Internacional resumed cable broadcasting on 16 July to announce that the cable and satellite stations would now also have to submit to the system of “cadenas,” in which national broadcasters are required to simultaneously retransmit the president’s speeches and other government messages when they are broadcast by the state media?
Finally, why did the telecommunications minister not respond to the request for a deadline extension for RCTV Internacional that was made on 30 July by Mario Seíjas, the president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Subscription Television?
Coincidentally, the Supreme Court has just rejected RCTV Internacional’s final appeals against the government’s refusal to renew its terrestrial broadcasting licence. Two months after the appeals were filed, the court ruled that they were inadmissible because the station had failed to comply with certain “administrative obligations.”
Thursday 02 Aug 2007 | Paul | Venezuela
