Self-censorship in Venezuela
By John Germany, Vcrisis,
Venezuela, December 10, 2004.
10.12.04 | It's official: the Venezuelan
president has, as was expected, signed the
gag law (official title: "Ley de Responsabilidad
Social en Radio y Televisión")
into effect. What's it all about? Under
the guise of caring for more "socially
responsible" TV and radio programming,
the government formulated and passed a law
defining in great detail which sorts of
transmission are to be allowed and which
will not be tolerated.
For instance, with few exceptions, all
programmes must be transmitted in the Spanish
language; advertising for alcohol, tobacco
products, drugs, and games of chance (except
for charity) is prohibited; images and sounds
depicting violence or sexual content are
regulated; every broadcaster has to make
available 10 minutes of programming per
day to the state; every unencrypted broadcaster
must dedicate 1.5 hours of educational programming
per day to children, plus 1.5 hours to adolescents;
60% of prime-time programming has to be
produced within Venezuela, as must all advertising;
radio stations that play music have to play
at least 3 hours of Venezuelan music plus
1 hour of Latin American music per day;
all stations must play the Venezuelan national
anthem daily, and must mention the authors,
melody, and lyrics.
The new law provides for savage sanctions
against broadcasters found in violation
of its articles. This is the case especially
for article 29, which is the scorpion's
tail: an all-purpose paragraph that can
be applied almost at will by a partisan
regulator. It determines that any broadcaster
promoting, apologising for or inciting to
war, changes in the public order or crimes;
threatening the security of the state; or
broadcasting anonymous messages can be taken
off the air for 72 hours. High fines are
also imposed and the broadcasting license
can be revoked for up to five years. Obviously,
Chávez and his pack will have few
qualms about interpreting any criticism
of their conduct as threatening the security
of the state.
As was to be expected, Venezuelan media
have begun censoring themselves rather than
run the risk of simply being eliminated.
Miguel Octavio, in his excellent blog The
Devil's Excrement, describes how this process
became visible yesterday: Globovision, which
to date has been the premier source of live
news for many Venezuelans, did not broadcast
violent unrest in the centre of Caracas
that left several people injured as street
vendors confronted the police. Obviously,
the news images would have shown violence,
which is prohibited between 5:00 a.m. and
11:00 p.m.; so rather than risk the wrath
of the powers that be, Globovision kept
mum. (The news still spread through the
Internet and newspapers, though, which are
not regulated by the new law. Any bets on
how long it will take before this loophole
is closed?)
Obviously, what is happening here is very
serious indeed. International organizations
ranging from Human Rights Watch ("This
legislation severely threatens press freedom
in Venezuela," said José Miguel
Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights
Watch. "Its vaguely worded restrictions
and heavy penalties are a recipe for self-censorship
by the press and arbitrariness by government
authorities.") to the Inter American
Press Association ("What is under discussion
is the right of all citizens to be duly
informed and not only about what the government
wants them to know, as happens in Cuba.")
to Reporters Without Borders (Reporters
Without Borders said it was "extremely
concerned" by a "vaguely-termed"
new law about the "social responsibility"
of the Venezuelan media that "might
be used against those that did not agree
with the government.") have criticised
the new law, as has Spain's foreign minister
Moratinos.
The situation is not pretty. At the moment
Venezuelans' hopes rest on the Internet
(those that have access to it) and newspapers
(as long as they remain relatively free
-- we'll ignore threats against and attacks
on journalists for the moment). I predict
a strong resurge of irony in the months
ahead, something like the church service
scene in Monty Python's "The Meaning
of Life".
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