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Press Freedom - Venezuela Radio Stations Closures -- WEB
November 13, 2022
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptPress Freedom - Venezuela Radio Stations Closures - Algarra
HEAD: Is Radio Dying in Venezuela?
TEASER: Critics say the wave of station closures is a government attempt to control the news before presidential elections in 2024
PUBLISHED: 11/13/2022 at 2:27 pm
BYLINE: Alvaro Algarra
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Caracas, Venezuela
VIDEOGRAPHER:
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, REUTERS
PLATFORMS: (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
SCRIPT EDITORS: Kenochs; Reifenrath, DJ (ok)
TRT: 2:03
VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath
UPDATE:))
((INTRO))
[[So far this year, at least 94 Venezuelan radio stations have been closed due to lack of licensing, according to the state communications regulator. Journalists and opposition leaders see this as a way of silencing independent information in the run-up to the 2024 presidential elections. For VOA News, Alvaro Algarra has the story from Caracas, narrated by Cristina Caicedo Smit.]]
((NARRATOR))
Last month, the Venezuelan National Union of Press Workers denounced the decision to close 15 independent radio stations in October.
These closures are in addition to 79 others this year by the Venezuelan National Telecommunications Commission, known as ‘Conatel.’
The Venezuelan press freedom organization ‘Espacio Público’ — or "Public Space" — says this latest government action is a way to ensure it owns the airwaves.
((Carlos Correa, Espacio Público)) ((MALE/IN SPANISH)) ((Zoom))
“This rearrangement that is taking place is designed to give pro-government media control of the radio ahead of the electoral process.”
((NARRATOR))
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's pressure on the country's media has contributed to Venezuela's ranking as one of the 30 lowest-rated countries in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders.
Opposition leader Elías Sayegh says the situation has left thousands of journalists unemployed and thousands of citizens without a reliable source of unbiased news.
((Elías Sayegh, Venezuelan Opposition Leader)) ((MALE/IN SPANISH))
“These are families that have lost their livelihood simply because Conatel, the National Telecommunications Commission, decided through an administrative decision that these people had to lose their jobs.”
((NARRATOR))
Diosdado Cabello, a Venezuelan politician, says the wave of closures isn’t about what the radio stations are broadcasting. Rather, it's because they don’t have up-to-date licenses to operate.
A law passed in 2001 required all radio and TV stations to apply for new broadcast licenses with Conatel.
The government says the stations that were shut down failed to obtain those new licenses.
But critics say the government isn’t granting new licenses and is using the law as a tool to close stations critical of the Maduro government.
The closures have forced many journalists to leave, though some continue to report on the situation in Venezuela from outside the country.
For Alvaro Algarra in Caracas, Venezuela, Cristina Caicedo Smit, VOA News.
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