About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

Alert

IAPA condemns President Chávez's non-renewal of television network's license

(IAPA/IFEX) - The following is an IAPA press release:

IAPA assails Venezuela's Chávez over non-renewal of TV station license

MIAMI, Florida (December 29, 2006) - The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today repudiated a decision by Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez to not renew the broadcast license of television network Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV). Chavez made the announcement yesterday after accusing the network of supporting plots to overthrow him and engaging in subversive activities.

The chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, condemned "this new violation of press freedom and free speech by President Chávez" and declared that "there is no longer any doubt, given his statements and actions, that this license non-renewal is simply a reprisal against a critical voice he sees as a nuisance."

Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, added, "We condemn the fact that he seeks to punish the television network because of its editorial stance. Likewise, we are concerned that the government will turn around and award this license to some other news outlet or person that will do its bidding. Both matters are equally reprehensible and, at the end of the day, if there are no watchdogs over abuses in government action the public will be stripped of its right to know."

Chávez said that the RCTV license is due to expire in two months' time and he has already signed a non-renewal order to take effect in March 2007.

Executives at the network, however, maintain that the license has longer to run. On previous occasions Chávez has also threatened not to renew the license of Globovisión television station.

The IAPA has repeatedly denounced the Venezuelan government for increasingly bearing down on independent news media in the country and criticized it for taking judicial and administrative actions against them in retaliation for their opposition to his administration.

In this regard, the hemispheric free-press organization reaffirmed its call for governments to respect press freedom and freedom of expression as values fundamental to democracy and stressed the need to observe Article 7 of the IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec, which states, "Tariff and exchange policies, licenses for the importation of paper or news-gathering equipment, the assigning of radio and television frequencies and the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists."