[Media-watch] FW: Venezuela alternative media gets state support

[David Miller]

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>VENEZUELA: ALTERNATIVE MEDIA TO RECEIVE STATE SUPPORT
>
>by Yensi Rivero
>
>CARACAS, Oct. 31 (IPS/GIN) -- Community media in Venezuela will receive $3.1
>million from the government next year, which is seeking to strengthen their
>potential as an alternative to the mainstream press and radio and TV
>stations.
>
>"I come from the world of commercial radio, and through that experience I
>was able to get to know it from the inside, but I was very disappointed,
>because it's all about money, and community work doesn't exist in that
>world," José Monagas, the director of Radio Vanguardia 98.5 FM in the
>western state of Trujillo, told IPS at a recent forum for alternative media.
>
>"We started in 1993," said José Angel Manrique, director of the community TV
>station in Rubio, in the extreme southwestern part of Venezuela on the
>border with Colombia. "At that time, since there was no legal framework or
>foundation, it was very difficult to get a permit."
>
>A framework allowing community media outlets to operate legally began to
>emerge in January 2002, three years after President Hugo Chávez took office,
>with the publication of regulations for "non-profit community radio and TV
>stations that serve the public."
>
>Last year, 14 alternative media outlets received permits allowing them to
>operate legally, but no precise official data is available on progress made
>on that front this year.
>
>Information Minister Jesse Chacón admitted at the alternative media forum
>held in Caracas in late October that "a certain number of stations that
>claim to be 'community' and 'alternative' stations operate with
>illegalities."
>
>President Chávez told the dozens of alternative media represented at the
>forum that the $3.1 million, to come from the Cooperative Development Fund,
>will finance activities designed to strengthen the country's network of
>community stations and newspapers.
>
>The public funds will go, for example, towards creating a news agency
>exclusively dedicated to the alternative media, and "the installation of a
>technological platform for satellite distribution which will be at the
>service of any community media outlet," the president announced.
>
>The satellite distribution platform will also make it possible to launch "an
>'international neighborhood newscast', for people in the neighborhoods of
>Latin America and the Caribbean," said Chávez.
>
>The community media in Venezuela are caught in the middle of the country's
>heated and polarized political debate. They are considered a stronghold of
>'Chavismo' -- Chávez supporters -- by the broad opposition movement, which
>is getting ready to collect signatures for a recall referendum, in yet
>another attempt to remove the populist, left-leaning president.
>
>Most of the commercial media in Venezuela are fervently anti-Chávez, and
>openly supported the two-month general strike that unsuccessfully attempted
>to topple the president last December and January. They also refrained from
>reporting on Chávez's return to power after he was ousted for two days in an
>April 2002 coup d'etat.
>
>On the other hand, human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch have
>criticized harassment and physical attacks by Chávez supporters on
>mainstream media outlets.
>
>The alternative media forum allowed community media from Venezuela and other
>South American countries to share their experiences and take a close look at
>a reality that encompasses between 100 and 200 radio stations, a handful of
>TV stations, and several local alternative newspapers in Venezuela.
>
>This country of 916,000 sq kms and 24 million people has five national
>free-to-air TV stations, a dozen regional TV stations, and 350 commercial
>radio stations.
>
>The Venezuelan Chamber of the Broadcasting Industry has complained about
>alleged violations of the broadcasting spectrum by 165 radio stations that
>operate without permits.
>
>"We hope the government takes action to regulate the use of the broadcasting
>spectrum, after taking such a severe stance in the case of Globovision,"
>said the vice-president of the Broadcasting Industry Chamber, Nelson
>Belfort.
>
>Belfort was referring to the National Telecommunications Commission's
>seizure of broadcasting equipment from the 24-hour news channel Globovision,
>an openly anti-Chávez TV station, which the media regulators accused of
>illegally using a certain frequency.
>
>The country's large radio and TV stations loudly protested the disciplinary
>measure.
>
>Community media outlets from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay,
>Peru and Uruguay took part in the Caracas forum.
>
>Gustavo Gómez, with the community radio station El Puente FM from
>Montevideo, Uruguay said it was important "to encourage the greatest
>possible diversity in Venezuela, and to underline the need to be independent
>and autonomous."
>
>Gabriela Ayzanoa, with the Milenia Radio 1530 AM station from Lima, Peru
>that focuses on gender issues, said "community media are extremely important
>in terms of strengthening the participation of women, men, children and
>adolescents as full citizens," and boosting "equity, justice and respect for
>basic values."
>
>The forum held workshops on ethics, social development and community models,
>as well as a central problem: financing difficulties and the question of
>keeping the alternative media afloat.
>
>After Chávez announced public financing for the sector, one participant,
>Indira Rivero said "we have been on the air for a year, and have not
>received help from anyone at all."
>
>"We were barely able to make it here, and have no way to get back home,"
>said Rivero, who operates the Radio Tamunangue Libre station in the state of
>Lara, 300 kms west of Caracas.
>
>But despite their precarious financial footing, the lack of permits to
>operate legally, and criticism from the anti-Chávez camp, the number of
>alternative broadcasters and publications is growing, as is their audience,
>according to participants in the forum.
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