Will Chavez go after CNN and Globovision?

Note: Last post for today.

Less than a day after Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) closed due to the non-renewal of their broadcast license, Venezuela’s government seems to be going after news giant CNN and local news network Globovision. According to Bloomberg:

“Communications and Information Minister Willian Lara said CNN last week falsely portrayed a Mexican protest as being in Caracas and displayed images of Chavez alongside an al-Qaeda leader. Globovision, a 24-hour news channel, ran scenes from the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II, which Lara said was incitement against Chavez.

‘This is an effort to associate Hugo Chavez with two things, violence and death,’ Lara said in a televised news conference today in Caracas. ‘CNN lies about Venezuela.””

In the meantime, anti-Chavez demonstrators in Caracas alleged that their peaceful protests were interrupted by troops who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at them. The European Union, Reporters Without Borders, and Honduran media groups facing their own problems with the president have condemned the decision against RCTV. (Mind you, not everyone in the Americas is displeased at the closing of RCTV).

Even though RCTV could be transmitted on cable TV, the network’s president did not discard the possibility of “government pressure” to eliminate that possibility.

Image- SBS – World News Australia (Protests around RCTV’s headquarters yesterday in Caracas became violent after police fired a water cannon at a group of unruly protesters)

Sources- CNN International, Globovision, Bloomberg, CNN, Reuters, Reporters Without Borders, El Universal, The Latin Americanist