A Venezuelan cable television channel critical of President Hugo Chavez has been taken off the air after refusing to broadcast footage of the president's speeches.
Radio Caracas Television, an anti-Chavez channel known as RCTV disappeared from the airwaves shortly after midnight over its failure to comply with new regulations requiring that Mr Chavez's speeches be televised on cable as well as terrestrial television.
Diosdado Cabello, the director of Venezuela's state-run telecommunications agency, warned cable operaters on Saturday evening that they could find themselves in jeopardy if they kept channels that broke the new regulations, which came into force last month.
"They must comply with the law, and they cannot have a single channel that violates Venezuelan laws as part of their programming," he said.
RCTV did not broadcast a speech by the president to his political supporters during a rally early on Saturday.
The station's removal from cable and satellite television prompted a cacophony of protests in Caracas neighborhoods as Mr Chavez's opponents leaned out apartment windows to bang on pots and pans. Others shouted epithets and drivers joined in, honking car horns.
"They want to silence RCTV's voice," said Miguel Angel Rodriguez, the channel's most popular talk show host. "But they won't be able to because RCTV is embedded in the hearts of all Venezuelans," he said.
The US Embassy in Caracas expressed concern about the decision.
"Access to information is a cornerstone of democracy and provides a foundation for global progress. By restricting yet again the Venezuelan people's access to RCTV broadcasts, the Venezuelan government continues to erode this cornerstone," a spokeswoman, Robin Holzhauer, said.
Venezuela's telecommunications agency has said in the past week that under new rules, two dozen local cable channels including RCTV must carry government programming when officials deemed it necessary.
Channels on the open airwaves are already subject to the measure, which Mr Chavez often uses to force all the country's TV channels and radio stations to broadcast his speeches.
Mr Cabello that other violations committed by cable channels included failing to warn viewers of sexual and violent content as well as broadcasting more than two hours of soap operas during the afternoon, instead of dedicating it to children's programmes..
He did not specify which TV channels had purportedly violated the law, but RCTV said it was the target. It accused the agency of pressuring cable providers to drop channels that were critical of the government.
When he denied RCTV a renewal of its over-the-air broadcast licence, Mr Chavez accused the station of plotting against his government and supporting a failed 2002 coup.
In August, the government forced 32 radio stations and two small TV stations off the air, saying some owners had failed to renew their broadcast licenses while other licences were no longer valid because they had been granted long ago to owners who were now dead. Officials said they planned to take more stations off the air.
Source:The Times
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