RIP: RCTV

At midnight on Monday, Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) ceased operations. On Saturday, Venezuela’s Supreme Court permitted the government to go through with not renewing RCTV’s broadcast license. Throughout the weekend protests for and against the government’s decision have gone on and they are expected to continue. RCTV executives claimed that troops took over RCTV relay stations Sunday evening hours before the network signed off.

As Global Voices Online noted, Venezuelan bloggers are split on the Chavez administration’s decision against RCTV, which had been one of the country’s most vocal anti-Chavez media outlets. For the time being, RCTV has been replaced with a public television station- TVes.

As of the time of publication of this post, RCTV’s website was down.

Image- cadenaglobal.com

Sources- BBC News, Bloomberg, Global Voices Online, El Universal, RCTV.net, Reuters