EU Congresswoman: No Resolution Against Venezuela in RCTV Case

Caracas, May 17, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)— The Vice-Chair of the European Parliament’s Freedom Commission, Giusto Catania, ruled out that the EU Parliament would pass a resolution against Venezuela in the RCTV case. Opposition leaders have been lobbying European Parliamentarians for a resolution against Chavez’s decision not to renew the TV license.

According to Giusto Catania, who is a member of the United European Left within the European parliament, said that his group will reject any move to include a resolution on Venezuela in the agenda of the European Parliament. He assured that this position would also be supported by the Green parties and the socialist parties of the parliament.

Also, Catania, who spoke from Brussels via phone to the state TV channel VTV, explained that the Chavez government’s decision not to renew the license of the TV channel RCTV has nothing to do with human rights and thus is no business of the Parliament.

Meanwhile, a group of five conservative EU parliamentarians, representing the Popular Party of Europe, arrived in Venezuela to meet with opposition leaders to discuss the RCTV case. They met with former opposition presidential candidates Manuel Rosales and Julio Borges.

After the meeting, Rosales said he asked for solidarity and support in the face of “the threat against democracy and freedom of expression” in Venezuela.

The group also met with RCTV director Marcel Granier, who just last week had visited the Europe Parliament to lobby for a resolution against the Chavez government. Another stop for the parliamentarians was with the directors of the opposition NGO Súmate.

Meanwhile, a group of high-level Chavez supporters is visiting Europe to meet with groups there to lobby against the resolution. The group includes Blanca Eckhout, the director of the national community TV channel Vive, the writer Luis Britto Garcia, the actress Jennifer Flores, and the director of the Venezuelan student exchange program Fundayacucho, Jorge Arreaza.

According to the news agency EFE, Blanca Eckhout said in Madrid today about the RCTV case that, “in no case is this about the closing [of a TV station],” but about the non-renewal of a license. The new station, which will broad cast on RCTV’s frequency will contribute to the “democratization of communication” said Eckhout.

RCTV, which is Venezuela’s oldest TV station, has been broadcasting since 1954, is being accused by Chavez of having violated numerous broadcast regulations and of having supported the 2002 coup against him. For this reason its 20-year license, which is set to expire on May 27th, will not be renewed. The decision not to renew the license has been criticized by many media groups, such as the Inter-American Press Association, as being arbitrary and a threat to freedom of speech. The Chavez government, though, maintains that it is the executive’s right to evaluate the performance of the station and to decide whether to renew its license.

Telecommunications Minister: RCTV off air at 11:59pm, May 27

Today Minister of Telecommunications Jesse Chacón outlined the process by which the channel RCTV must go off the air, at 11:59pm on May 27th. About 10 to 15 minutes later, the new channel, known as TEVES or Venezuelan Social Television will begin its country-wide broadcast. If RCTV does not shut down its signal at that time, warned Chacón, it would be operating illegally.

At first, explained Chacón, the channel will be broadcast with three or four transmitters and will reach only 60% coverage of the country. After a while, though, the number of transmitters will be increased so that it “will have more extensive coverage than RCTV currently has,” covering 90% of the country before the end of 2008.

“The constitution, in its article 118, says, among other things, that the state will ensure public service television, radio, libraries, and computing,” said Chacón. Next year is when a public service radio will be introduced, he added, “and with this we will have complied with a constitutional mandate.”

According to Chacón, once TEVES is launched, a national debate would be launched in which the management model, financing, and contents of the new channel will be discussed. “Venezuelan society will construct, during the entire year, the model of excellence for Venezuelan TV.”

Chacón today also accused the newspaper El Nacional of having provided false information in its main front page headline, which claimed that the director of the telecommunications commission, Franco Silva, said that TEVES would never have the same range of coverage as RCTV.

“The headline does not correspond to the content of the article,” said Chacón. The interview with Silva, inside the paper, was accurate, but the editors placed a false headline on the front page that had nothing to do with the interview.

See also: Venezuela’s New Channel 2 is Officially Announced