VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT Hugo Chavez has made a series of moves to tighten government control on national media, say critics, who warn that the internet and social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter could be his next target.
Recently, Mr Chavez announced that the government would review the licences and possibly close as many 240 radio stations – more than one-third of all AM and FM broadcasters. He has proposed new rules that would limit the use of shared programming by the stations, which helps many of them stay viable.
Critics say it is a means of forcing independent station owners to sell out or go off the air, thereby shifting airwave dominance to the pro-government chain founded by Mr Chavez called Community Radio. Since 2001, the government chain has grown to 238 local stations, which are not included in the current review.
“If we recover I don’t know how many stations, it won’t be to give them back to the bourgeoisie. No, no. We have to create popular radio for the people,” Mr Chavez told a university audience here on Tuesday. He has said the moves are part of his plan of shifting media “hegemony” away from private ownership and to the people.
But critics say the licence review and other measures taken by Mr Chavez in recent weeks are designed to quash dissenting views. Two years ago, he refused to renew the licence of the nation’s most popular TV network, RCTV, which broadcast commentary critical of his left-wing policies.
Alfredo Keller, head of a Caracas-based polling firm, believes the actions are Mr Chavez’s response to a recent decline in his popularity, which according to Keller’s quarterly poll hit a five-year low in May.
Other ominous signs for free-speech advocates include a law that Venezuelan attorney-general Luisa Ortega Diaz will present to the national assembly soon that would create a new category of “media crime”, punishing those who broadcast or print opinion instead of fact.
"What I wonder is, who will define the crime and based on what criteria?" said Marcelino Bisbal, a professor at Central University of Venezuela and editor of Communicationmagazine.
Another proposal that critics say will limit freedom of expression is a law being proposed by cabinet minister Diosdado Cabello that would channel all internet communication through servers controlled by the state telecommunications company, CANTV.
Mr Cabello has said the law would enable the government to suspend all telecommunications for security reasons in times of national emergency. But Bisbal and Keller believe it is designed to control social-networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as rallying points for the opposition.
"Threats to the media are nothing new, but they have become an avalanche," said Rafael Chavero, a constitutional law professor in Caracas. – ( LA Times-Washington Postservice)