Opposition supporters march to defend their media

www.vheadline.com Posted: Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 12:47:33 AM By: Robert Rudnicki

Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters have marched through the streets of Caracas, massing outside the hotel where Coordinadora Democratica leaders were meeting Deputy Foreign Ministers from the Friends of Venezuela group, made up of Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and the United States.

The demonstrators called for an end to legal action against the out of four of Venezuela's privately-owned national TV stations, RCTV, Televen and Globovision, as well as to call for early elections, which they hope will see the removal of President Hugo Chavez Frias from office.

The Infrastructure Ministry has launched investigations against the three stations, after the President accused them of waging a campaign against his government after suspending normal advertising and broadcasting only pro-opposition and anti-government ads.

• However, it now seems that the stations will be returning to normal programming, with a return to soap operas and normal advertising.

Despite this apparent concession, it is still unclear if this will be enough to pacify the government and prevent legal action from being taken. Globovision, however, got its dates mixed up and in an obvious typo said the stoppage would continue until Monday, December 3.