Venezuela's news media sound alarm over Chavez move to regulate programming

Wednesday, May 28, 2003
(05-28) 22:45 PDT (AP) -- CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER <a href=www.sfgate.com>Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- No live coverage of political violence. Limited daytime newscasts about terror attacks. No radio stations devoted exclusively to rock or other "foreign" music.

Venezuela's news executives say all this could happen if President Hugo Chavez succeeds in enacting a law that imposes harsh restrictions on what and when Venezuelan television and radio stations can broadcast.

Ruling party lawmakers defend the proposed law, saying it will protect children from violence and end what they call "selective censorship" by the news media, which they accuse of supporting the opposition. The also contend it will make broadcasters accountable to citizens.

"This project is a weapon to defend us as a people and guarantee public freedoms," said Juan Barreto, a member of the committee which drafted the bill and a journalism professor at the Central University of Venezuela. It upholds "freedom of expression, which doesn't belong only to channels and journalists but also to the people," he said.

Many press rights advocates, however, disagree. They say the law, now before the Chavez-dominated Congress, will allow an increasingly authoritarian government to silence opposition ahead of a possible recall vote on Chavez's presidency.

Chavez designed the Law for Social Responsibility in Radio and Television to bring "the news media to its knees," said Victor Ferreres, president of Venevision television.

"We would have to broadcast a blank screen and ignore almost everything that is occurring in the news" to comply with the law, Ferreres claimed.

Chavez has long accused Venezuela's news media of conspiring to topple him. Most broadcasters slanted coverage of a brief 2002 coup against Chavez, and many supported an opposition general strike this year.

Among other provisions, the law would ban "rude" and "vulgar" language; prohibit images and sounds related to alcohol and drug consumption, gambling and sex; and ban "psychological" or physical violence, all between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Similar limits would apply to early morning and evening newscasts.

Sixty percent of all programming must be produced within Venezuela, and of that, more than half must be created by "independent producers" approved by Conatel, the state media watchdog.

Broadcasters say the law will allow censors hand-picked by Chavez to crack down on the mostly opposition news media. Violators can be punished with $37,000 fines or have their broadcast licenses revoked.

Advertisers, too, can be held liable -- a provision critics say is meant to starve stations of publicity at a time when Venezuela's news media are confronting an economic crisis.

Congress is expected to pass the bill by simple majority vote within weeks. Six of nine members of a committee to enforce the law would be appointed by Chavez.

"If there is a terrorist attack this morning, I'd have to tell listeners we have to wait to inform them during the news at 11 (p.m.) because it could be labeled 'violent content,"' said Leopoldo Castillo, a talk show host with Globovision television news channel.

Deputy Willian Lara, a Chavez confidante, said the law won't stop TV and radio from broadcasting news.

"The news can be reported like it is now, only the grotesque images are restricted," he said.

Critics are wary.

The legislation "is completely incompatible with international standards" of press freedoms, said Jose Vivanco, executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. Definitions are so cloudy that some of Venezuela's prized daytime soap operas could be banned, he said.

Opposition groups pushing for a referendum on Chavez's presidency later this year are organizing marches against the law.

A leftist former army paratrooper, Chavez was elected in 1998 and re-elected to a six-year term in 2000.