Al Jazeera English: Venezuelan channel taken off air

[SealLion]

You'd think that a guy who runs a country and espouses in helping his people by building hospitals and schools and trying to present himself as a savior would permit people to be able to critique his rule so as to make himself an even better leader for his countrymen, yes??
Not so, I guess.

A television channel critical of Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, has been pulled from cable television.

Cable networks stopped carrying RCTV Internacional on Sunday after the government said the station was not following broadcast regulations that include showing Chavez's speeches.

.....er....that's short for not doing what the government censorship office want's you to publish.
You know...the lies in other words.

Diosdado Cabello, the public works minister, said on Saturday that cable networks' programming could only include stations that obeyed the Venezuelan broadcast law, which also includes restrictions on adult content and foul language at certain hours

Ok, that's fine. I don't think that there's anything personally wrong with that. It's basically a defining idea on morality and what people, most especially young kids could be exposed to.
We have the same thing here and elsewhere in my country.
It's called censoring the language out of some TV shows and presenting some shows after certain hours.
I can understand that.

But in this particular case, I don't think this statement holds water for a minute. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised that there's more holes in that statement then there is in Swiss cheese.

Chavez in 2007 denied RCTV a renewal of its broadcast license, accusing the station of participating in a 2002 coup against him

ahhh. ...so now we get to the bottom of things here.

Free speech 'silenced'

Media freedom groups and the US government, which have previously accused Chavez of seeking to limit free speech, condemned the decision to take RCTV off free-access TV.........Robin Holzhauer, a US embassy spokesperson, said: "Access to information is a cornerstone of democracy and provides a foundation for global progress

Limiting free speech is it??

On a side note, the US shouldn't be criticizing anyone here as they are involved as equally as my own country is in censorship.
Censorship doesn't just happen in the Middle East or in South America. It also happens in North America.
It is common knowledge that censorship also occurs in various European states. And I'm not talking about the east of Europe, either.

Off topic link:OFF TOPIC LINK REGARDING CENSORSHIP.

......Al Jazeera's correspondent in Caracas, said: "About 16 organisations issued a statement accusing the government of using camouflage methods to silence them."

That must be for sure.
Hide behind other methods to secure your opposition in a controllable arena.

Here's the REAL reason why censorship of this media outlet has occured.

RCTV said in a statement earlier this week: "[The measure] is meant to silence the voice of protest of the Venezuelan people in the face of the failure of the government's administration."......Chavez faces growing criticism over shortages of power and water and a sharp currency devaluation this month that could accelerate the country's soaring inflation.

I realize that no government is perfect. Mistakes happen and it is the duty and responsibility of every government, where-ever that government is, to ensure that it is subject to it's people. To ensure responsibility to it's people. And if the people are not happy, then it is the responsibility and duty of that government in office to ensure it does what it is suppossed to do.

That is part and parcel of true democracy. Even though real democracy doesn't exist.
Hell, not even in my country does it exist.

On a final note, there is one thing that I do appreciate about Mr. Chavez and that is his outspokenness on issues that the US is involved in such as setting up bases in Columbia. Right next door to Venezuela.

I did also make a news report of that here in the forums as well.

Anyways...here's the link to this news article:

Al Jazeera English - Americas - Venezuelan channel taken off air

[slikrapid]

Chavez in 2007 denied RCTV a renewal of its broadcast license, accusing the station of participating in a 2002 coup against him.

During that coup, networks showed footage of anti-Chavez protests leading up to his brief ouster, but turned cameras off when he was restored to power.

thats what biased media does, spreads false accusations or interpretations (usually still within the law boundaries) and as such it has been used to create or shift public opinion on persons/issues - many of these so called 'free/open' media are actually decoys or sponsored/financed by players behind the scenes

now, how to fight such media? well, if people are aware of these possibilities, they should be able to catch a glimpse behind the smokescreen and realize the biased information being spread - its one thing to criticize, but a completely different thing to criticize intentionally all the time with no measure so to speak - in a decent society such media would have its freedoms just as any other, but the citizens would realize what its all about, 'stop' paying attention to it & it would spontaneously shift itself at the margins of society where it belongs

often the more radical leaders tend to just shut down such media, but this won't bring them good rating with the moderate & liberal citizens and last, but certainly not least, the 'victims' may call the world sheriff aka usa to save their liberties with another one of their famous good-guy (who likes good profit) invasions...i mean peace-restoring liberating anti-terror & whatnot actions