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- From: Bruce Girard <resystom%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
- Subject: VENEZUELA: RADIO STATION PUNISHED F
- Message-ID: <1992Dec15.191922.24928@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 19:19:22 GMT
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- /* Written 3:32 am Dec 14, 1992 by hrcoord@igc.apc.org in igc:media.issues */
- /* ---------- "VENEZUELA: RADIO STATION PUNISHED F" ---------- */
- From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
- Subject: VENEZUELA: RADIO STATION PUNISHED F
-
- /* Written 12:16 am Dec 14, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in
- igc:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
- rights reserved. Permission to re- print within 7 days of
- original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.
-
- Title: VENEZUELA: RADIO STATION PUNISHED FOR ITS BROADCASTS DURING
- COUP
-
- caracas, dec 11 (ips) -- the venezuelan government has decided to
- close the popular ''radio rumbos'' for a week, after accusing it
- of fomenting rebellion and civil disobedience during the attempted
- coup on nov. 27 coup.
-
- communications minister fernando martinez said the government's
- decision ''seeks to preserve the system of freedoms of the
- communications media in venezuela, as established by law.''
-
- venezuelan president carlos andres perez used ''radio rumbos'' to
- communicate with the entire country soon after the coup began.
-
- but the government accused the station of broadcasting exaggerated
- reports on the events which shook caracas on the morning of nov.
- 27.
-
- the one-week suspension is the only case of censorship against any
- media house in venezuela since the failed coup, which resulted in
- at least 200 deaths.
-
- the measure has been deplored by other media here.
-
- the government's first move against ''radio rumbos,'' which is
- based in caracas and has a nationwiwde audience, came on the very
- day of the coup, when the interior ministry ordered it to suspend
- its transmissions.
-
- after the radio station's directors refused to comply with the
- order, police forced their way into its installations and
- deliberately damaged some of its equipment, while journalists
- present insulted the lawmen on the air.
-
- journalist eleazer diaz rangel told ips that although the radio
- station reported ''opportunely and truthfully'' on the nov. 27
- events, its reporters lost the orientation that a communications
- medium needed to have during the coup.
-
- however, he said that the authorities' handling of the situation
- was one of the government's worst errors during the nov. 27
- upheaval.
-
- the station's directors have recognized that the news broadcast on
- the morning of the coup ''were not the most convenient in those
- moments.''
-
- the media house will continue transmitting until the cabinet
- decision on its suspension is published in the official gazette,
- which could take as long as one week.
-
- initially, the government had planned to suspend the radio
- station's lease: in venezuela radio and television frequencies
- belong to the state, which leases them to private concerns.
- ----
-
- media houses here, especially the television, became participants
- in the nov. 27 uprising, when the rebels forced them to relay
- their messages for three hours. (end/ips/trd/so/caf-cs/kb/92)
- ----
-
-
-