CARACAS—Venezuela's replacement of an opposition television station Monday with a state network promoting President Hugo Chavez's socialist revolution drew sharp criticism that the former soldier is attacking democratic freedoms.
The leftist leader took the RCTV station off air around midnight Sunday, silencing a major opponent to reforms that have given him greater control over the judiciary, the military and the oil sector of this OPEC nation.
The European Union said it was concerned by the decision to replace Venezuela's most popular television station with a new state-backed public service channel without allowing open competition and a tender process for a new broadcast license.
"Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential elements of democracy," said the EU presidency, currently held by Germany.
Chavez had accused RCTV of showing immoral soap operas and supporting a bungled 2002 coup, along with the nation's other main television stations that saturated the airwaves with often virulent anti-Chavez programming.
But the takeover of the channel dramatically boosts the state's presence in Venezuela's media, with the three main broadcast channels either controlled by the government or largely uncritical of its concentration of power.
Communications Minister Willian Lara was quoted by the El Nacional daily saying the state could investigate news channel Globovision, the last bastion of opposition broadcasting but a network not available over regular airwaves nationwide.
He said a Globovision program and a survey on the station's Web site could have counted as incitements to assassinate Chavez.
"We are heading towards ... the conversion of media into political weapons in the control of the state," Marcelino Bisbal, a journalism professor at Universidad Catolica in Caracas, said in a newspaper interview.
Fighting On
In a tearful farewell program, RCTV staff packed a studio and prayed together.
"Do not lose hope. We will see you soon," RCTV presenter Nelson Bustamante told viewers minutes before the screen flipped to the animated logo of the new government station.
Workers ranging from cameramen to makeup artists have promised to continue showing up to the station as executives discuss plans to broadcast over the Internet or radio.
The new state channel opened its transmission with traditional Venezuelan dance and song, but by early morning was airing an aerobics show featuring tanned and fit Venezuelans doing kickboxing moves to a bouncing electronic beat.
The closure of RCTV was condemned by the U.S. Senate and the EU Parliament, but Chavez's supporters justified the move by criticizing the journalistic ethics of the channel.
RCTV ran movies and cartoons when protests by Chavez supporters turned the tide in Chavez's favor in the 2002 coup, and joined a grueling two-month strike that year by showing only anti-Chavez propaganda and marches for weeks.
Pollster Datanalisis found almost 70 percent of Venezuelans opposed the shut-down, but most cited the loss of their favorite soap operas rather than concerns about limits on freedom of expression.
The Venevision network, which stood alongside RCTV during the 2002 coup, had its broadcast license renewed over the weekend after nearly three years of adjusting its editorial line to favor the government.
"Yesterday we saw the takeover of the principal media critical of President Chavez," Benoit Hervieu, Americas directors at Reporters Without Borders told a Caracas news conference.
"Besides Globovision, what television media is left that can criticize the government of Mister Chavez?"
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