Like Chavez closing down TV stations and newspapers because they oppose him? Yeah I am against that type of freedom.
Do you get you info straight from the CIA?
http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com/downloads/Venezuela Update January 2007.htm
Private Media is Respected in Venezuela
·Freedom of Expression and Free Speech are encouraged
Since President Hugo Chavez' election in 1998, the largely opposition-owned private media has gone on the offensive, criticizing the president and opposing his social, political, and economic policies. Despite this, protection of civil liberties, including freedom of expression and the press, have been honored.
·The private media moves from objective reporting to political advocacy
The private media has consistently attacked the Chavez administration in newspapers, radio stations, and television channels, so much so that their role has moved from objective reporting to political advocacy. It has been so dramatic that several journalists have even noted, "the five main privately owned channels—Venevisión, Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), Globovisión, Televen and CMT—and nine out of the 10 major national newspapers, including El Universal, El Nacional, Tal Cual, El Impulso, El Nuevo País and El Mundo, have taken over the role of the traditional political parties."
[9]
·Democratization of a public good: the case of RCTV
Recently,
President Chavez announced that the broadcasting concession for television station Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), a division of the business group 1 Broadcasting Caracas
, which expiries in May 2007, would not be renewed due largely to its lack of objectivity and inability to report the truth on issues of national importance. “The airwaves are a public resource entrusted to broadcasters with the understanding that they will be used responsibly to serve the people”.
[10]
I
n the days leading up to the coup in April 2002, RCTV and other private media stations openly encouraged Venezuelans to protest and take the streets to remove President Chavez. In fact, “…a group of top media executives rolled up in their limousines for a meeting with Mr. Carmona [the transitional president], at the 19th-century Miraflores palace.... Also present were Miguel Henrique Otero, publisher of the El Nacional group of newspapers, Alberto Federico Ravell, chief executive of Globovision (Venezuela’s answer to CNN) and Marcel Granier of the RCTV channel. “We can’t guarantee you the loyalty of the army,” a presidential guard heard one of them tell Mr. Carmona, “but we can promise you the support of the media.[11] And sure enough, when the tide began to change and the population rallied to bring back President Chavez and take back control of the Presidential Palace, RCTV broadcasted cartoons and reruns instead of reporting what was happening; a feat that no media outlet in the U.S. would ever get away with. In essence, once the private media owners realized the coup would not succeed, Carmona's "media allies conspired to suppress all news of its difficulties."[12]
On January 17, 2007 speaking in front of the Congressional Commission of Science, Technology, and Social Communications, a group of independent producers in Venezuela proposed to use the RCTV signal to enhance the artistic and cultural values of the nation and highlighted the importance of having public radio and public television free from corporate or political interference.
MEDIA BREAKDOWN IN VENEZUELA
