CARACAS (Reuters) – Critics of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez worry that the main remaining TV station opposed to the socialist leader will water down criticism of the government now that its news director has quit.
Alberto Ravell, a founder and director of the station credited with turning Globovision into a major player in the opposition, left the station last week.
Globovision blamed Ravell’s departure on internal differences.
It denies negotiating with the government, which is criticized by freedom of speech groups for pressuring media companies.
The end of Ravell’s tenure at the station has triggered intense discussion among opposition politicians, newspaper columnists, bloggers and Twitter users about the reasons for his departure and Globovision’s future as an independent voice.
Known for one-sided and often shrill reporting, the TV station is an important soap-box for anti-government leaders although it is seen only in a few cities including Caracas and on cable.
“We hope that this situation does not change the editorial line of the channel,” said Caracas mayor and Chavez opponent Antonio Ledezma.
“Anything that is said about Globovision and puts in question the credibility of the channel worries us.”
Unusually, a Globovision reporter was invited to and attended a ministerial event on Monday. In recent years, the government has excluded the station from many events.
During his 11 years in office, Chavez has vastly increased the number of pro-government newspapers and television and radio stations to counter private media companies that are generally hostile to him. Many companies have either toned down their criticism of the government or gone off the air.
Balanced journalism is a rarity in South America’s main oil exporter, and Globovision and its government-run counterpart VTV excel at taking a stand with very little nuance.
“For a long time, Ravell’s role at Globovision was to make reflective and thoughtful anti-Chavez voices invisible,” said columnist Vladimir Villegas in El Nacional newspaper, adding that the station was likely to change its tone without Ravell.
In 2007, Chavez refused to renew the concession for RCTV, the country’s oldest private network, after it apparently supported a short-lived coup against him in 2002.
TV channels Venevision and Televen, who also took an anti-Chavez line in the coup, later dropped more extreme opinion shows and balanced their news coverage.
Last month, a cable version of RCTV was suspended for failing to meet obligations to broadcast certain Chavez speeches.
