Venezuela,
February 10, 1992:
A popular daily paper, El Diario de Caracas, has
two glaringly empty white spaces in its editorial pages. This was eight days
after a failed coup by then paratrooper Hugo Chavez and a group of leftist
junior officers who resented the oppressive tactics of the government of
then President Carlos Andres Perez. Chavez was secured in prison, after
admitting his personal responsibility for the coup on national TV. El
Diario de Caracas, headed by a certain Marcel Granier, submitted to the
censorship decree of President Andres Perez, prohibiting publication of any
articles and editorials that “converted the villain [Chavez] to a hero.”
The missing editorials from the white spaces in that February 10th
edition presumably took a critical stance against President Andres Perez --
later impeached for massive corruption and now living in Miami.
Venezuela, April 11, 2002:
Fast-forward to the attempted coup against the now
democratically elected President, Hugo Chavez. On this day, Venezuela’s
military brass, its chamber of commerce and its notoriously corrupt trade
union federation joined forces to engineer a coup and replace Chavez with
the head of the Chamber of Commerce, who proceeded to cancel the nationally
approved new Bolivarian constitution, and sack the National Assembly,
Supreme Court and Attorney General in one fell swoop.
This same Marcel Granier is now head of the popular TV
station RCTV, and is seen (and videotaped) assuring the coup leaders that
the media will handle the PR for the coup. RCTV graciously converted its
largely telenovela and game show broadcasts into a 24 hour shout-out to the
anti-Chavez faction to rally and march on Miraflores, the presidential
palace.
The next day, RCTV broadcast a series of demonstrably
false reports and manipulated videos accusing Chavez’ supporters of
massacring opposition demonstrators, and falsely claiming that Hugo Chavez
had resigned the presidency. At the same time, the plug was pulled on the
only government-controlled station. Despite the anti-Chavez rhetoric
pouring from RCTV, the poor barrio dwellers of Caracas descended en masse
from the hills around the city to demand their President’s return, and the
military rank and file turned coat on their brass. Thanks to cell phones and
faxes, Chavez’ supporters weren’t dependant on the RCTV (or any of the other
opposition stations) for their news. The word got out that the President had
not resigned, and that the so-called “vacuum of power” was actually a coup
d’etat; and Chavez was returned to Miraflores in triumph.
When what is known as the “media coup” failed, RCTV
failed to report Chavez’ return and immediately reverted to its standard
fare of cartoons, games, telenovelas and classic US films.
Venezuela, April 2002-May 27, 2007:
From the April 2002 coup, through the
opposition-ordered sabotage of the vital oil industry 7 months later,
through the 2004 recall election, RCTV continued to dominate the public
airwaves of Caracas. Virulently anti-Chavez talk shows, sandwiched between
the telenovelas and game shows, were never censored, and the station was
allowed to continue broadcasting, despite accusations of pornography
violating the nation’s telecommunications code.
Venezuela, Today:
The broadcast and print media in Venezuela are still
controlled largely by private, anti-government and pro-corporate interests.
But when the RCTV’s 20 year license to use the public airways came up for
renewal in May, the government decided to transfer the RCTV air time to a
public channel to contribute to the betterment of the Venezuelan society, a
sort of Venezuelan PBS. For months, US papers and broadcast media have
been full of this same Marcel Granier and his supporters screaming
CENSORSHIP! Even the US Senate has passed a resolution condemning the
non-renewal of RCTV’s license, as if they knew what they were talking
about! And as if the US Senate has any right to control TV in Venezuela.
Of course Granier and his supporters never even mention
that RCTV is still free to continue broadcasting on cable, internet, and
satellite, and US reporters never seem to question the claim that taking
RCTV off the air will eliminate opposition speech in Venezuela. Neither do
we hear anything of RCTV’s failure to pay taxes and Social Security for its
employees.
Until now, the voice of Venezuela’s majority poor has
been relegated to the proliferating but low-power community radio stations.
Now Venezuelans who are tired of the telenovelas and right wing talk want to
see a reflection of their own faces, talking about their own issues, on
their own TV screens.
Should Venezuela’s FCC have renewed RCTV’s license?
What would you have done if you had been in charge? And what, after all,
would the US government do if a major TV station were to broadcast lies in
service of a coup d’etat against the President?
The author is a member of the National Lawyers
Guild and organized a delegation of lawyers to Venezuela in 2006.
