Mass Media

Referring to recent claims that the Venezuelan government both wants to control the media and take over service stations, Venezuela’s President Chavez called the constant lies and distortions by the private media a “desperate campaign.”

In response to widely circulated international news reports that Venezuela plans to spend $30 billion on Russian weapons and host Russian military bases on its soil, President Hugo Chávez said Wednesday that the reports are false and denounced the international media’s consistent efforts to slander the Venezuelan government.

This week marked the anniversary of the controversial non-renewal of the public broadcasting license of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) and its on-air replacement with the state channel Venezuelan Social Television (TVES). Opposition students used the occasion for a protest.

Journalists, communications specialists, and other participants in the Latin American Meeting against Media Terrorism in Caracas last weekend demanded that political leaders in the region put the issue of media terrorism on the agenda of all international forums and meetings in which they participate.

Venezuela's Communication and Information Minister, Andrés Izarra donated sixty-nine sets of audio-visual equipment to community television stations from around the country on Wednesday, with the objective of promoting a National System of Popular and Alternative Communication.

Venezuelan Finance Minister, Rodrigo Cabezas and Communications Minister William Lara, have rejected as "slander", claims by editor and publisher David Natera, that his regional daily, Correo del Caroni, is being forced out of print.

Editor and Owner of the Venezuelan daily El Nacional, Miguel Otero, warned this week that independent media in the country would "disappear" if the proposed constitutional reform is approved. He also accused the Venezuelan government of preventing the Inter-American Press Association from meeting in Caracas next March.

“The Venezuela Solidarity Network notes with pleasure that Pandemic Studios announced on Sept. 24, 2007 that it is delaying the release of its new video game Mercenaries 2: World at War which is set in Venezuela,” announced US Interim Coordinator Chuck Kaufman.