
Chavez gov't targets another opposition TV station
by
Bill Doskoch
on Tue 29 May 2007 12:13 AM EDT
From the BBC:
Venezuela's government has accused a TV station of inciting people to kill President Hugo Chavez, hours after taking another network off the air.
It said footage shown on Globovision implicitly called for Mr Chavez to be killed. The station denies the claim.
Communications Minister William Lara said Globovision had called for the death of Mr Chavez by airing footage of the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II with the song "This Does Not Stop Here" sung by Ruben Blades, now Panama's tourism minister.
"The conclusion of the specialists ... is that (in this segment) they are inciting the assassination of the president of Venezuela," Mr Lara said, as he filed a lawsuit against the news network at the state prosecutor's office.
The government was also suing the US station CNN for allegedly linking Mr Chavez to al-Qaeda, Mr Lara said.
"CNN broadcast a lie which linked President Chavez to violence and murder," he said.
Globovision director Alberto Federico Ravell rejected the accusations against his station as "ridiculous".
Globovision was the only TV station to air footage of a large demonstration against the government's growing control over the media.
Here's a RSF news release on the situation.
And here's a BBC feature: TV row widens Venezuela's rift