Venezuelan TV Channel RCTV Agrees to Register with CONATEL

[Peace Patriot]

Private Venezuelan TV Channel RCTV Agrees to Register with CONATEL

Published on February 23rd 2010, by Kiraz Janicke – Venezuelanalysis.com

Caracas, February 23, 2010 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan privately owned cable television channel RCTV has agreed to register “under protest” with the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) as a national producer after it was suspended for violation of Venezuela’s media law on January 23.

The media law establishes standards for child and adult programming, prohibits racist, sexist or inflammatory content and incitement to violence, places limits on commercial advertising, and requires stations to broadcast important government announcements.

Last July, CONATEL announced that cable broadcasters would undergo review and be subject to the media law if 70% of their content and overall operations were considered to be domestic.

RCTV reclassified itself as an “international” broadcaster in order to avoid the media regulations. However, a review found that over 90% of RCTV’s content and production was domestic.

Rather than register as a national producer the opposition aligned RCTV opted to ignore the ruling, refused to broadcast a government announcement and was subsequently sanctioned with a temporary closure.

A series of violent opposition protests followed resulting in the deaths of two students, one pro-Chavez, one opposition, who were shot dead by unidentified snipers.

Now a month after the violence, RCTV has agreed to the ruling. Director of CONATEL Diosdado Cabello said that RCTV - which together with Venezuela’s private business chamber FEDECAMARAS and other sectors, participated in the military coup against President Hugo Chavez in April 2002 – would be required to sign a statuary declaration guaranteeing compliance with the law.

Director of RCTV Marcel Granier also announced that he would launch a new international cable channel, RCTV World, whose programming would be 71% international and 29% national, in accordance with the law.

Cabello said CONTAEL was “satisfied” with the decision and added, “I think that it ratifies our position that they are national audio-visual producers and if they want to be international they must comply with the law."

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/5155

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The Chavez government is doing much to restore the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people in relation to large and multinational corporations. Recently, the government signed oil contracts with 8 muitinational oil corporations, from as many countries, on Venezuela's terms--that is, with a 60/40 split of the profits, favoring Venezuela and its social programs. Exxon Mobil walked out of the talks in a snit, and tried to grab $12 billion of Venezuela's international assets in a "first world" court--one of the biggest, richest, most powerful corporations on earth literally trying to take food from poor children's mouths and schoolbooks from their hands--but lost that legal effort. Venezuela's right to control the terms of oil production, on behalf of the Venezuelan people, was thus established and defended, and is now confirmed by the new contracts. And Exxon Mobil has aced itself out of the biggest oil reserve on earth (twice Saudi Arabia's).

This fight with RCTV is similar. Every country in the world regulates the public airwaves. The U.S. used to have a "Fairness Doctrine" until the Reaganites took it away, and we still have that right if we are ever able to assert it again. We have the right to demand balanced coverage of political and other public issues, and public service, from those who purchase a LICENSE to use public communications. RCTV thought it was so big and powerful that it could not only openly, nakedly participate in a coup against the elected government, but that it could also play the scofflaw to public regulation of its license. And, once again, on behalf of the Venezuelan people--and indeed on behalf of everyone in the world still suffering under corporate rule--the Venezuelan government has asserted and won back the sovereignty of the people on the regulation of broadcasting.

I am very glad that the Venezuelan government has gotten RCTV to acquiesce. Their "under protest" is meaningless. They probably mean "under protest" until somebody can get a coup attempt together again, which will suspend the Constitution, the courts, the National Assembly and all civil rights, but will let RCTV broadcast their damned lies. Yes, they were coerced. And that is exactly how I want big corporations to feel--coerced by the government to respect the voters, to respect elected leaders, to adhere to the law, to act responsibly and to provide public service. They have NO inherent right to broadcast. That privilege is awarded by the people through their government in exchange for those pledges of lawfulness and service.

The same applies to Exxon Mobil. If they want to exploit a resource that belongs to the Venezuelan people--and the oil was nationalized, by the way, prior to the Chavez government--they must follow the rules set down by the Venezuelan peoples' elected government. The same applies to all public resources--water, other minerals, forests, the labor force. Corporations need to be put back in their place BENEATH sovereign governments.

No corporation has "rights" of any kind. They are awarded a license to do business in the public interest. That interest is determined by the people in the leaders whom they elect to make those decisions. A corporation can be disbanded and its assets seized if it ceases operating in the public interest. Our Supreme Court is wrong. Our government is wrong. They are doing things backwards--putting corporate interests first, their own needs and power second and the interests of the people a far, far, far distant third, if our interests come into it at all. The Venezuelan government is putting things in the right order. The people first, the leaders second, as servants of the people and the interests of corporate entities a distant third. They can have a contract, they can have a license, is they play by the rules. Otherwise, 'good riddance!'

Of course, our corpo-fascist press hates this idea with a venomous hatred: that we, the people, are the sovereigns in this land; that they operate here by our permission; and that anyone in the world would dare to assert these principles of democracy. We need to understand that why they hate the Chavez government so much is NOT that the Chavez government is undemocratic, but for the opposite reason--that the Chavez government is re-establishing that old, American Revolutionary principle of democracy: the sovereignty of the people. They thought they had exterminated it. It still lives! And that is driving them crazy.

[protocol rv]

1. Here's a bit less propaganda, more fact

http://eldib.wordpress.com/2007/07/02/experts-say-conocophillips-exxon-mobil-could-seek-venezuelas-refineries-in-us/

[EFerrari]

3. Your post is completely off topic. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

4. Protocol rv, your racism against the Indigenous has discredited you. Other DUers should know...

...in Comment #36, here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x30994

Your comments about the "rainforest Chernobly" in Ecuador--the Chevron-Texaco toxic oil spill the size of Rhode Island, which has destroyed fisheries, rivers and streams and the living of 30,000 Indigenous people in the Amazon forest--and your racist remark, that the charges against Chevron should be disregarded because they were "presented by an Indian," taint all your other comments on Latin American issues. You are an oil corporation apologist. And your remarks are so ignorant, uninformed and so like the crap put out by Chevron's 12 P.R. firms--which they hired to discredit the Indigenous who filed suit against them for damages and cleanup--that your views have no credibility whatsoever.

In fact, I advise other DUers to use my Rule No. 1 from the Bush Junta as a guide to determining the truth of your statements: To wit, whatever you assert, the opposite is the truth.

Thus, we can surmise that the article you cite is full of shit, and, reading it, I see that--lo and behold--it IS full of shit. First of all, it's the "Houston Chronicle" talking about the big oil corps that run Texas. So, right there, we know that venezuelanalysis.com is more objective. Second, it's outdated (2007) and just full of disinformation--for instance, that the Chavez government nationalized Venezuela's oil. It did not. Venezuela's oil was nationalized prior to the Chavez government. What the Chavez government did was to demand a better deal for Venezuela and its social programs. Exxon Mobil walked out of the talks, issuing wild threats about seizing Venezuelan assets in the U.S. and later went into a "first world" court to try to seize $12 billion of Venezuela's international cash reserves--one of the biggest, most powerful, wealthiest multinational corporations on earth literally trying to take the books out of the hands of Venezuelan schoolchildren and the food out of their mouths. They lost that legal battle--and the Chavez government has since given the business to 8 other corporations, from as many countries, on Venezuela's terms.

Thus, short of war on Exxon Mobil's behalf--and there is considerable evidence of a Pentagon war plan for that purpose--and short of a crystal ball to know if such a war would be successful (but my guess is that it wouldn't be), Venezuela has successfully asserted its sovereignty over its huge oil reserves (the biggest in the world--twice Saudi Arabia's) and has secured the larger portion of the oil profits for it social programs and local and regional development projects. This "Houston Chronicle" article was a vehicle for Exxon Mobil's threats and attempts at intimidation. The threats and intimidation didn't work.

Now, what this had to do with the topic at hand--Venezuela's successful assertion of its sovereign right to regulate users of the public airwaves--in "protocol rv"'s mind, is an interesting question. The big 'news' monopolies in Venezuela hate Chavez, spew forth anti-Chavez propaganda 24/7, and RCTV in particular actively participated in the 2002 rightwing military coup attempt against the Venezuelan Constitution (which the coupsters ripped up, as their first act) and against the elected Chavez government. And--after the Venezuelan people had peacefully defeated that coup, in one of the most important events in Latin American history-- their next act was to support the oil bosses' lockout, backed by Exxon Mobil, which was aimed at crippling the Venezuelan economy and toppling the Chavez government another way. The people of Venezuela defeated that one as well, and within the year (2003) had the oil industry up and running and a booming economy, which continued for five straight years, until the Bushwhack Financial 9/11 in Sept 2008.

Venezuela's assertion of its sovereignty over its oil resource and over its right to regulate the public airwaves may be the connective tissue, to "protocol rv." The main method of multinational corporations, in seeking all the profits and all the power in a society, is to damage and destroy the sovereignty of the people who live there. "Protocol rv" purports to be a Venezuelan, and you'd think he/she would be in favor of Venezuelan sovereignty, but I would guess--from "protocol rv"'s repeated promulgations of oil corp propaganda--that, if "protocol rv' is in truth a Venezuelan, he/she is a member of the rich oil elite who repeatedly sold their country down the river in every way imaginable, from giving the oil corps 10/90 profit deals, shorting Venezuela (the Chavez government bargained hard and got 60/40 profit shares), while raking some cream off the top for themselves, to utterly neglecting the health, education and welfare of the poor majority. They are one of the most irresponsible, greedy, callous and malfeasant elites that I have ever studied in modern history. And whether or not "protocol rv" is a member of this elite, he/she sounds just like them. They seek power by coup and by lies, and by shilling for foreign corporations and for foreign rule--rule by the U.S., which wants the Chavez government out and a toady rightwing government in, by any means necessary.

"Protocol rv" is not a good advocate for this toady rightwing position, because he/she is a racist--thinks the statements of "Indians" are false because they are "Indians." But it's still a typical profile of the Venezuelan rightwing elite, full of oil corp and CIA "talking points." It is also typical of that elite in being uninformed, lazy and often downright stupid (as with their boycott of the last elections). They have never had to actually create anything--they lived off the oil and created a pampered urban, imitation-U.S. culture concentrated in Caracas--to the utter neglect of the poor majority and neglect of the development of their country. They lived well and neglected local manufacturing, land reform and food security, education, health care, infrastructure, as well as regional development in cooperation with other Latin American countries. They were even importing machine parts for the oil industry--rather than creating local jobs with a local industry. Venezuela is well rid of them, as a ruling elite. Venezuelans are now--by repeatedly electing the Chavez government--trying to create something better, and "protocol rv" feels left out, apparently, and comes here, to DU, to criticize a government that has created prosperity for many Venezuelans, not just the elite, that has pursued far thinking policies, such as pouring the oil profits into education, and that has actually been an excellent manager of the Venezuelan economy, and has reversed a good part of the mess that prior rightwing governments left behind. Why is "protocol rv" spreading rightwing/oil corp propaganda HERE? Why not try to convince other Venezuelans that, say, having free education through university and universal health care are bad? What has a U.S. Democratic Party blogger forum to do with "protocol rv"'s rightwing/oil corp agenda? Good question eh?

Feel free to address my points, "protocol rv." They are addressed to others but to you as well. Why are you peddling this rightwing/oil corp line here?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Latin American Herald Tribune: RCTV Internacional to Resume Broadcasting in Venezuela

RCTV Internacional to Resume Broadcasting in Venezuela

Radio Caracas Television, which has an editorial slant opposed to President Hugo Chavez, announces that it has reached a solution -- under protest -- to the conflict with regulators that forced RCTV off the country’s cable systems last month

CARACAS – Radio Caracas Television, which has an editorial slant opposed to President Hugo Chavez, announced Monday that it reached a solution to the conflict with regulators that forced RCTV off the country’s cable systems last month.

The president of parent company Empresas 1BC, Marcel Granier, told a press conference that the firm has presented on Monday to the Conatel regulatory panel the documentation required for it to get back “on the air.”

Venezuelan cable systems dropped RCTV Internacional and five other stations from lineups late last month in a dispute over which rules applied to the outlets.

Conatel distinguishes between “national” and “international” channels based on the source of content. RCTVI maintained that as an international channel, it was not subject to regulations requiring national outlets to transmit official addresses whenever the president demands.

But Conatel said RCTV Internacional did not qualify as an international channel because more than 70 percent of its programming was produced in Venezuela.

Granier said RCTV decided to solve the problem by splitting into two networks: RCTV Internacional and RCTV Mundo.

The revamped RCTV Internacional will accept its classification as a domestic outlet and comply with all relevant regulations.

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=352706&CategoryId=10718