Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is threatening to close Venezuela’s top anti-government television station in his latest push to weaken the opposition and build a socialist state.
Chavez has already moved against his opponents this year with measures that include stripping control of half of Caracas from the capital’s newly elected mayor and opening corruption investigations against several leaders.
Media-savvy Chavez, known for hours-long speeches often broadcast on all terrestrial channels, now has his critics’ main remaining channel, Globovision, in his sights as his government is reviewing licenses of all private stations.
PHOTO: AFP
Globovision’s closure would draw international criticism but be popular with Chavez’s hardcore supporters. Opposition outrage at such a move would unlikely extend to the wider population, only a small part of which watches the channel.
“Nobody in Venezuela should be surprised if the state takes decisions about certain media companies that are practicing terrorism in our country,” Chavez said last week during a visit to Argentina.
Two years ago he refused to renew the license of the nation’s favorite network RCTV, implicated in a brief coup against him in 2002. International watchdogs said that decision attacked the freedom of expression.
Thousands of students marched on Wednesday in Caracas, some carrying banners bearing Globovision’s logo.
Known for its vehemently anti-government stance, Globovision is accused by Chavez and his supporters of fomenting civil unrest. Most recently the government took exception to its coverage of an earthquake.
Globovision is a small station dedicated to news. It may still broadcast on cable if it loses its terrestrial license. As a mainstay of opposition politics, its closure would be a symbolic blow even though Chavez’s critics will still have access to the OPEC nation’s main newspapers and radio stations.
Less politicized private stations that show soaps, gameshows and more balanced news have the highest ratings and are far more popular than government-run networks.
Chavez has made several threats to Globovision and its owner Alberto Ravell in recent days. On his widely watched weekly television show last week, he said that the “lunatic” Ravell and Globovision would “be finished, or I’m not called Hugo Chavez.”
One media group, owned by mogul Gustavo Cisneros, has softened its former anti-government tone since the coup, but Globovision rarely backs away from a fight with Chavez and is favored by opposition politicians to get their message out.
“Venezuela’s first media terrorist is President Chavez, who every day verbally attacks any sector of the country that does not agree with him,” Ravell said on Tuesday.
RCTV, which lost its terrestrial license two years ago, and Globovision both gave airspace to army officers involved in a short-lived coup against Chavez in 2002.
The decision meant Venezuela’s favorite TV channel, source of highly watched soap operas, disappeared from the airwaves, sparking protests and contributing to Chavez’s defeat in a referendum that would have given him broad new powers.
But the move barely dented Chavez’s long-term popularity and he again enjoys approval ratings above 60 percent despite oil income falling by a half so far this year.
A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few female yakuza, but after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society. The multibillion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade. In the past few years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and laws targeting mafia are tightened. An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records
EXTRADITION FEARS: The legislative changes come five years after a treaty was suspended in response to the territory’s crackdown on democracy advocates Exiled Hong Kong dissidents said they fear UK government plans to restart some extraditions with the territory could put them in greater danger, adding that Hong Kong authorities would use any pretext to pursue them. An amendment to UK extradition laws was passed on Tuesday. It came more than five years after the UK and several other countries suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong in response to a government crackdown on the democracy movement and its imposition of a National Security Law. The British Home Office said that the suspension of the treaty made all extraditions with Hong Kong impossible “even if
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
RSS