Venezuela imposes media restrictions, closes radio stations | Breaking Tweets

Venezuela imposes media restrictions, closes radio stations

Posted by Dorothy Jagonase on 7/10/09 • Categorized as Conflict, South America

Per The New York Times, the Venezuelan government is setting new regulations on cable television, while revoking the broadcast licenses of 240 radio stations.

Government telecommunications agency head Diosdado Cabello said stations that use largely locally-produced content need to comply with strict Venezuelan laws for broadcasters. The broadcasting laws, which critics say are used to silence criticism of the government’s policies, include a requirement to air President Hugo Chávez’s speeches when demanded, per the article.

Twitter users from Caracas, Venezuela react:

  1. Isabel Pieretti
    jazzdancer1 Ahora quieren silenciar las estaciones de radio y TV. Será que tienen miedo o que no les gusta que les canten las verdades? (Now they want to silence the radio and TV stations. Will they fear or do not like to sing them the truth?) 10 Jul 2009 from web
  2. Juan Carlo Rodríguez
    Cinetuyoymio My good mood has gone away as I read that the Government will demand that Presidential messages be broadcast thru cable too. 10 Jul 2009 from TwitterFox
  3. Bernard Horande
    bhorande Pueden bajar el volumen de la radio. Y hasta apagarlas. Pero no pueden bajárselo a lo que pensamos. Y menos apagarnos. (Can lower the radio volume. And they can extinguish it. But they can not download what we think. And least turn them off.)< /span> 10 Jul 2009 from Tweetie
  4. Gabriel Bastidas
    Gbastidas Acaban de cerrar en Anzoátegui ÓrbitaTV y ÓrbitaRadio: el único medio de oposicion que había en el estado (Just closing in Anzoátegui ÓrbitaTV and ÓrbitaRadio: the only opposition in the state had) 10 Jul 2009 from UberTwitter

Venezuelans are using Twitter to protest against the new regulations and station closures:

  1. nuneznoda
    nuneznoda (Venezuela) Usemos Twitter para decirle al mundo lo que está ocurriendo. #medioslibres (Let us use Twitter to tell the world what is happening. Medioslibres #) 10 Jul 2009 from TwitterBerry
  2. josemanuelr
    JoseManuelR (Venezuela) Don @nuneznoda (siempre brillante) nos propone iniciemos campaña mundial en defensa d nuestros medios usando #FreeMediaVe y #MediosLibres (Don @ nuneznoda (always brilliant), we proposed to begin global campaign to defend our media using FreeMediaVe # and # MediosLibres) 10 Jul 2009 from TweetDeck
  3. Juan Carlo Rodríguez
    Cinetuyoymio (Caracas, Venezuela) Ad at least 400 radio styations are being closed. That’s it — we need to draw attention on this. Please help #FreeMediaVe 10 Jul 2009 from TwitterFox
Share
[del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mixx] [MySpace] [Newsvine] [StumbleUpon] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Related tweets in real-time:

[Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post 

Tagged as: ,
  • Si no se detiene esa ley absurda de medios se perdera el futuro de Venezuela...Este gobierno que habla de defender al pueblo no construye bienestar, es destructivop, no piensa en LOS EMPLEOS, el bienestar, no le gusta la pluralidad y nos esta ahogando...

    Hablan de monopolio y ellos son los que buscan crear el MONOPOLIO DEL GOBIERNO, esa energia deben usarla para construir hospitales, escuelas, carreteras y PAZ!!!!
  • Si no se detiene esa ley absurda de medios se perdera el futuro de Venezuela...Este gobierno que habla de defender al pueblo no construye bienestar, es destructivo, no piensa en LOS EMPLEOS, el bienestar, no le gusta la pluralidad y nos esta ahogando...

    Hablan de monopolio y ellos son los que buscan crear el MONOPOLIO DEL GOBIERNO, esa energia deben usarla para construir hospitales, escuelas, carreteras y PAZ!!!!
  • bealita
    La libertad de expresión no es tán facil de acallar y es de entre todos los derechos humanos más basicos después de la vida el más defendido..somos lo que pensamos, lo que creemos y lo que opinamos...no permitiremos que nos amordazen! #freemediave
  • donivanoff
    Thanks for giving cover to our daily ordeal. We will continue contributing with a strong campaign on Twitter. Let´s keep up that spirit!!!
  • kakatua22
    What Venezuelan government is doing is abolishing media monopoly. Most of Venezuelan radiolectric space is owned by only one person and never pay taxes. We should be very careful when we post information.
  • donivanoff
    To abolish the media monopoly? Or to empower their own one? I agree with you nuneznoda. We all know who the real monopolist is HCF.
  • nuneznoda
    What Venezuela government is "really" doing is illegally demolishing opposition, abusing its powers to become the only monopolist. The public venezuelan media is just a propagandist platform that does not allow any criticism from outside. Government has dozen of TV stations but they account to no more than 8% of share because of bad quality and excessive pro-Chavez bias. It`s completely false that most of venezuelan radioelectric space is owned by one person, it`s an absurd and misinformed lie: Who is that person anyway? The great monopolist in the country is Hugo Chavez, but his many TV, radio stations and newspaper are viewed by few people, basically because of the low quality that characterized his mediocre quasi-comunist regime. This is why he fights opposition, by abusive restriction and closing.
  • nuneznoda
    The campaing started aorund 10:00 am on july 10th and quickly found enthusiastic response from venezuelan tweeters and soon from other countries. Thru arguably legislation the government is posed to close 240 radio station, pass new anti-private media law and impose penalties on journalist and editors just for opposing the regime. We hope Twitter will help us to show the world how undemocratic this regime is and how hard is to be a jounalist in this country. Or just a citizen who want to speak up his mind freely.
  • ckanal
    Thank you for posting additional information about this story.
blog comments powered by Disqus