Venezuela Calls for Probe of CNN, Globovision ‘Lies’

May 28 (Bloomberg) — Venezuela’s government urged a probe of Time Warner Inc.’s Cable News Network and local television station Globovision for broadcasting “lies'’ and inciting violence against President Hugo Chavez.

Communications and Information Minister Willian Lara, who today asked the attorney general to start an investigation, said CNN last week portrayed a Mexican protest as being in Caracas and displayed images of Chavez next to an al-Qaeda leader. Globovision, a Caracas-based, 24-hour news channel, last week ran scenes from the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II, which Lara said was incitement against Chavez.

“This is an effort to associate Hugo Chavez with two things: violence and death,'’ Lara said in a televised news conference today in Caracas. “It’s an unacceptable piece of propaganda against the country, not real journalism.'’

The probe is likely to fuel international and domestic concern that yesterday’s government shutdown of Radio Caracas Television, the country’s oldest and most-watched TV network, was just the first step toward imposing a gag on news media, Alberto Federico Ravell, Globovision’s general manager, said in an interview. RCTV, which carried game shows, comedies, and soap operas, was the most widely viewed network critical of the government in its news-related programming.

Police this evening fired tear gas and rubber bullets as protesters, angered by the RCTV shutdown, threw up barricades on the main avenue in eastern Caracas. Protesters burned trash and furniture in the streets of the Chacao area, the capital’s financial district.

Four protesters were injured in a student protest in Valencia, Carabobo state, Interior and Justice Minister Pedro Carreno said on Union radio.

CNN en Espanol said in a statement that it “categorically denies accusations made'’ by Venezuela’s Lara.

`On Alert’

“We are on alert,'’ Ravell said in an interview from Caracas. “This exposes the president’s growing media voracity and his necessity to control the voice of dissent. We are on the path to totalitarianism.'’

The European Parliament, Peruvian President Alan Garcia and former Brazilian President Jose Sarney were among the critics of Chavez decision to close RCTV.

“It hurts when a news media is closed down'’ Garcia said at a Lima news conference. “There are always circumstances in which a license isn’t renewed, but it’s unfair when it’s managed by only one side. I hope this won’t be repeated as a constant state policy.'’

Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos, whose family owns El Tiempo, that country’s biggest newspaper, told reporters in Bogota this morning that RCTV was a “symbol of television'’ in Latin America.

RCTV’s shutdown, coupled with the probes, will intensify scrutiny by regional governments and international groups of Venezuela’s approach to free speech, Miguel Henrique Otero, editor-president of Caracas-based El Nacional, the nation’s second most-read newspaper, said in an interview. Chavez took over the network without any legal basis to silence critics, Otero said.

Coup

Chavez’s government accuses RCTV executives of using the network to help incite a coup that ousted him from office for two days in 2002. While RCTV filled the airwaves with coverage of his ouster, it reportedly ran cartoon shows once Chavez was restored to office, declining to report his government’s return.

At midnight yesterday, the signal of RCTV was replaced with TVes, a government-funded channel that will transmit news and cultural programming 24 hours a day. The demise of RCTV and the start of TVes is a “reinforcement of our sovereignty,'’ Lil Rodriguez, chairwoman of TVes’ board of directors, said today.

Opposed by more than two-thirds of Venezuelans in a poll last month, the decision to close RCTV is unpopular at home and has earned Chavez condemnation abroad from groups such as the Inter-American Press Society. Starting today, the government will control two of Venezuela’s four nationwide broadcast channels.

Tear Gas

“It’s blatant control of media resources,'’ Otero, whose family founded El Nacional, said. “This move marks an inflexion point. Other governments will be attentive of Venezuela’s next steps against the media.'’

Police dispersed crowds of hundreds of protestors, including journalism students, who marched this morning to urge government guarantees for free speech. Marchers, chanting “liberty,'’ gathered at Brion Square in the Chacaito area of Caracas, where police forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the protest.

“All media are at risk of being shut down, or worse, self- censorship,'’ said Soraylis Mendoza, 30, a lawyer taking part in the protests. “Some stations have been censoring themselves for years.'’

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To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Kennedy in Caracas at Akennedy1@bloomberg.net ; Guillermo Parra-Bernal in Caracas at gparra@bloomberg.net

Popularity: 1% [?]

We have a Zionist controled media here in the U.S., all one has to do is look at our Mid- East policy for the last 40 years…We are now fighting a war for Israel with borrowed money which is inflating our economy…Let’s take the board out of our eye before we take the sliver out of Chavez’s….

I’ve sent a message for this post but I couldn’t see here just now. Why?