Chavez Shuts Down Venezuelan TV Station as Supporters, Opponents Rally

In Venezuela, thousands of people have taken to the streets in four days of protests and counter-protests over the closing of TV network Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV. The Venezuelan government decided not to renew RCTV's television license earlier this year. Police, protesters and government supporters have clashed violently in Caracas since Sunday, and scores of people have been arrested.

President Hugo Chavez's decision to close RCTV - Venezuela's oldest private television network - has received international condemnation, including from the European Union, press freedom groups, Chile and the United States.

The Venezuelan government says it cancelled RCTV over its support for the coup that briefly overthrew Chavez five years ago. At the time, RCTV and other opposition TV channels openly supported the coup. In a national address on Monday, Chavez defended his decision to close RCTV, denouncing it as a "permanent attack on public morals."

He also called news network Globovision an enemy of the state, and criticized its coverage of the protests against RCTV's closure.

* Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan president: "What Globovision did last night was an open and clear indication that they would kill me. Well, people of Globovision, I am going to alert you in front of the country on the national chain of radio and television, I recommend that you take a tranquilizer, because if not I am going to do what is necessary."

On Monday, Venezuela's government announced it was suing Globovision for allegedly broadcasting material to incite a possible assassination of Chavez. It also accused US news network CNN of linking him to al-Qaeda. Globovision and CNN have both denied the claims.

RCTV's general manager Marcel Granier has described the closure as "abusive" and "arbitrary". The Venezuelan government refused to renew its license on the grounds that it conspired against Chavez during the 2002 coup, including broadcasting footage falsely blaming Chavez supporters for violence, applauding coup leaders as they overthrew the government and then refusing to report that Chavez had returned to power following mass protests.

In a moment we'll have a debate on this issue, but first let's turn to a documentary made by two filmmakers who were in Caracas during the 2002 coup. The film is called "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."

* "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" - excerpt of documentary produced by Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain.

That clip featured an interview with Andres Izarra, a news manager with RCTV during the 2002 coup. He later quit the station in protest over its coverage. Andres Izarra joins us now from a studio in Caracas. He later served as Venezuela's communications minister under President Chavez and is now president of TeleSUR. And joining us on the telephone from Connecticut is Francisco Rodríguez, an assistant professor of economics and Latin American studies at Wesleyan University He is a a former chief economist of the Venezuelan National Assembly.

* Andres Izarra, former news manager at RCTV. He served as Venezuela's former communications minister under President Chavez. He is now president of TeleSUR, a multinational satellite network.
* Francisco Rodríguez, assistant professor of economics and Latin American studies at Wesleyan University, and former chief economist of the Venezuelan National Assembly.

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