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Venezuelan Television Licence Decision is Not Media Censorship
By Alfredo Toro Hardy
The Financial Times
May 31, 2007
Sir, With reference to your report "TV channel axed in the latest Chávez drama", (May 26/27) and your editorial ("Chávez clampdown", May 29), regarding the RCTV case in Venezuela, I would like to present you with the following facts:* The non-renewal of the RCTV channel licence is not dissimilar to the non-renewal of the Thames Television licence in 1992, after 24 years of service.* The non-renewal of the licence only affects RCTV broadcasting on public airwaves, but it does not affect the television station's liberty to broadcast in Venezuela through cable or satellite.* The reasons of the non-renewal are directly related to RCTV's failure to abide by the requirements established by the Venezuelan law for public airwaves that licensees should not incite political violence and civil unrest.
Such violations correspond to conspiracy to bring down the constitutional government of Venezuela on the occasion of the coup of April 2002 and the active promotion of the oil sabotage of December 2002, which caused the country more than $10bn in losses. It also relates to a long history of sanctions against RCTV imposed by previous governments for violations of the law. In that last sense reference should be made to sanctions against RCTV in 1976, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1989 and 1991.* The non-renewal of RCTV's licence is not an expression of censorship of private media. It must be noted that 79 TV stations and 118 newspapers in Venezuela are privately owned. A majority of them are opposed to the government of President Hugo Chávez.
Alfredo Toro Hardy,
Venezuelan Ambassador to the UK
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