CARACAS (Reuters) – More than a dozen of 34 radio stations ordered shut by the Venezuelan government went off the air yesterday, part of President Hugo Chavez’s drive to extend his socialist revolution to the media.
The association of radio broadcasters said 13 stations had stopped transmitting, following an announcement Friday night by government broadcasting watchdog Conatel that 34 radio outlets would be closed because they failed to comply with regulations.
Critics said that the crackdown infringed on freedom of speech and that owners were not given the right to a proper defence.
“They’re closing the space for dissidents in Venezuela,” William Echeverria, head of the National Council of Journalists, told RCTV, a private cable TV station, which did not have its broadcasting license renewed in 2007.
Chavez supporters say they are waging a “media war” against private news companies and have denounced in recent days what they say is a renewed offensive by privately owned domestic and international media to discredit Venezuela.
Diosdado Cabello, the public works minister who also oversees Conatel, said some of the radio stations were shut because they did not have their broadcasting licences renewed and others transferred them illegally to new owners.
Conatel delivered an order to CNB radio in Caracas before dawn for its five stations to stop transmitting by 8 am, the station said on its website.
At CNB’s headquarters in downtown Caracas, hundreds of CNB employees and government critics gathered to protest the shutdown.
CNB said it would continue to broadcast on its Internet site, www.cnb.com.ve.
“This government has turned into a mutilator of rights,” Juan Carlos Caldera, of the opposition political party Primero Justicia, said on Globovision TV.
Antonio Ledezma, the opposition mayor of Caracas, called on Venezuelans to protest the move in the streets.
One of the stations to cease operations was Radio Bonita 1520 AM in the city of Guatire, 25 miles (40 km) from Caracas.
“Fifteen years after my father died, they tell me (broadcasting) licences can’t be inherited, we’re shocked,” Felix Ali Obelmejia, director of Radio Bonita, told Globovision.
Cabello defended the closures, saying they were part of the government’s effort to democratize the airwaves.
“These decisions are strictly within the law,” he said.
“When the government decided to democratize the radio-electric spectrum and end the media (oligopoly) it was serious. In the streets, the nation is waiting and especially those that have been asking for years to obtain a licence,” Cabello said.
Another 120 radio stations were being investigated for administrative irregularities and the radio frequency of stations being shut down would be transferred to new community broadcasters, he said.
Venezuela’s attorney general presented this week draft legislation that would establish prison sentences for anyone who provides false information that harms the interests of the state. Rights groups harshly criticized the proposal.
As part of his drive to remake Venezuela as a socialist country, Chavez has vastly expanded the number of publicly owned television and radio stations since he took office in 1999. Some are directly owned or financed by the government, while others are operated by cooperatives and community groups.
