Venezuelan Government Warns that some TV Licenses Might Not be Renewed

Minister of Communication and Information William Lara
Credit: MinCI

Caracas, Venezuela, June 19, 2006—Venezuela’s Minister for Communication and Information, William Lara, reiterated President Chavez’s remarks last week that the government will evaluate whether broadcasters have been complying with the country's Media Responsibility Law. If the evaluation finds that they have not, some broadcasters, whose licenses are up for renewal in 2007, might not be able to renew these. The announcement caused an uproar among opposition leaders, who charged the government with wanting to stifle free speech.

President Chavez first made the announcement about possible non-renewals of broadcast licenses last week, when he said, “I have ordered the revision of TV channel concessions. There are some channels that want to change, to respect the constitution, who had supported the coup in 2002, which was all of them. Back then we had the chance to eliminate these [licenses], but despite this we called for dialogue.”

During the April 2002 coup attempt nearly all major private television stations collaborated with coup organizers to present a false image of the events that led to Chavez’s detention and then, when the coup was collapsing, failed to report on the demonstrations demanding his return.

Chavez went on to say, “We need to review the licenses of the TV stations which will be expiring soon, in 2007. We cannot be so irresponsible to keep giving concessions to a little group persons so that they may use these against us… I don’t give a damn what the oligarchs of the world say. What is important to me is the fate of my homeland.”

Communications minister Lara clarified Chavez’s remarks a few days later, saying that any such non-renewal of broadcast licenses would take place by the letter of the law and only following a thorough review of the extent to which broadcasters are abiding by the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television.

“To follow the content of television and radio programming in Venezuela is to comply with our duty,” said Lara on Saturday. Lara added that so far the institution in charge of observing the media, the telecommunications commission CONATEL, has documented many violations of the media’s duties as outline in the Social Responsibility law.

Defending against charges that the government was persecuting the media, Lara said, “Applying the law in no way whatsoever is to persecute. Applying the law is to act in accordance with the state of law, just as the Bolivarian government of Venezuela is doing. What some owners of radio and television service providers need to understand is that impunity has ended in this country.”

International media groups such as the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) and the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) immediately condemned the government’s announcement. “We urge President Chavez to abstain from making these kinds of threatening commentaries, which inhibit the work of the press,” stated the CPJ according to the news agency AFP.

Similarly, the president of the Commission on Liberty and Press of the IAPA, Gonzalo Marroquín, said, “These threats do no stop being worrisome and feed a climate of antagonism, especially in an electoral period in which the media must play the part of scrutiny in order to give the public a diversity of points of view.”

The Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, which was passed in late 2004, specifies, among other things, that broadcast media must abide by a certain broadcast schedule if they want to depict graphic violence or sexuality, requires the broadcasting of a certain proportion of nationally produced programming, restricts advertising, and allows for the participation of citizens in determining broadcaster’s compliance with the law. Violations of the law’s provisions can lead to fines and, in extreme cases, to a temporary or even permanent suspension of broadcast licenses.