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The recent closure of 32 privately owned radio stations and a proposed law to punish "media crimes" are signs that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is moving to quash criticism of his government, according to a recent U.S. intelligence report.
A group of pro-Hugo Chavez rioters beats Venezuelan journalists in downtown Caracas on August 13.
1 of 3 Chavez's government is "moving forcefully to silence critics," said the unclassified U.S. analysis prepared by the Open Source Center, a government intelligence center.
The relationship between privately owned media in Venezuela and the leftist Chavez have never been rosy. Chavez has accused private television stations of supporting his brief ouster in 2002, and the president was a driving force behind denying a license renewal in 2007 to one broadcaster he said cooperated with the opposition.
But the decisions this month by the Chavez government to close 32 radio stations and two television broadcasters and to support legislation that would create prison sentences for people who commit "media crimes" have created a new level of scrutiny from outside Venezuela.
"The media crimes bill is the most blatant example of the government's steady encroachment on media freedom in an effort to establish a media monopoly and stifle freedom of expression," said the unclassified intelligence report, dated August 3.
The Venezuelan government denies that the media crimes law and the closure of the radio stations are related, and maintains that each initiative was grounded in Venezuelan law.
"As usual, much disinformation has shaped the debate surrounding these developments," the Venezuelan Embassy said in a fact sheet about the developments.
At the same time Chavez was extolling these two measures, supporters of his government attacked the Globovision television studio, one of few remaining networks that gives a voice to the opposition.
In the August 3 attack, more than 30 members of a pro-government party threw tear gas at the studio and injured three people.source: cnn.com