- *The Miami Herald*<http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/28/2873422/venezuela-to-join-in-oil-exploration.html#morer> * reports that Venezuelas state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, has announced that it will conduct off shore drilling in Cuban waters.* - ----------------------
Venezuelan Opposition TV Channel Globovision to Pay Overdue Fine Jun 29th 2012, by Ewan Robertson [image: Globovision newsroom (Carlos Mesa/ UN).] Globovision newsroom (Carlos Mesa/ UN). Edinburgh, 29 June 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) Opposition television channel Globovision has said it will pay a fine of US $2.2 million (9.3 million bolivars) today, eight months after it was first issued by Venezuelas National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel). Globovision announced yesterday it would pay the fine after Venezuelas Supreme Court ordered an embargo on US $5.7 million (Bs 24.4 million) of Globovisions assets to force compliance with the fines payment. The embargo order also requested that Venezuelas Central Bank calculate the interest due on the fine, which should have been paid by 1 January this year. State regulator Conatel issued the fine in October last year after deeming that Globovision had broken articles 27 and 29 of the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television during its coverage of the El Rodeo prison hostage situation in June 2011. According to Conatel, Globovision had deliberately attempted to manipulate information and create a situation of uncertainty and anxiety in Venezuela by replaying interviews of distraught prisoners mothers 269 times over four days and adding the sound of gunfire to reports. Globovision went to the Supreme Court to appeal the fine, however the appeal was denied on 15 March. Conatel then went to the Supreme Court to demand that payment of the fine be enforced, with Conatel director Pedro Maldonado arguing that as Globovision had not shown interest in paying the penalty, legal action was necessary. In response to yesterdays Supreme Court embargo order, Globovision released a press statement complaining it was being forced to pay the fine, with the stations lawyer Ricardo Antela stating if this embargo was applied it would mean the definitive closure of the channel. The channel had previously claimed that the original fine, equivalent to 7.5% of Globovisions gross earnings in 2010, represented the economic bankruptcy of the station. Other groups, such as NGO Journalists for Truth, argued that in light of annual earnings of US $30.2 million (Bs130 million) the station was not in danger of bankruptcy. After paying the Conatel fine today Globovision representatives will immediately request the embargo order against its assets be dropped. *An independent decision* Globovisions press statement charged the Supreme Courts embargo order as grotesque and despotic, arguing that the original fine was unjustified and that legal channels of appeal had still not been exhausted, with proceedings ongoing in the Administrative Dispute Court. The Administrative Dispute Court had already denied a Globovision appeal to suspend the Conatel fine, which was then passed onto the Supreme Court where it was also quashed. The right-wing channel also claimed public authorities were seeking communicational hegemony ahead of the presidential elections later this year, with the stations vice president, Maria Fernanda Flores, declaring that the Supreme Courts decision was a new blow against freedom of expression and a way to intimidate Globovision. The governments information minister Andres Izarra also commented on the matter, stating that the Supreme Court made an independent decision. The [national] executive has nothing to do with todays decision by the TSJ. He further declared to press that the state of law rules in Venezuela, and that Globovision was first able to go to the Supreme Court to appeal the fine but it was turned down. Globovision was previously fined US $3 million by the government in June 2009, for tax evasion and using unauthorised airwaves. The opposition channel also manipulated information and participated in the short lived coup against current president Hugo Chavez in April 2002. ------------------------------ *Source URL (retrieved on 29/06/2012 - 8:02pm):* http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7082 ---------------------------- * (Photo Gallery) March of community media and popular communication alternative claims for revolution and socialism * *article also in Spanish:* ** *great photos- **http://www.aporrea.org/medios/n208525.html*<http://www.aporrea.org/medios/n208525.html> Celebrating the Alternative Media Movement in Venezuela Jun 28th 2012, by Luis Rivero Donalle Ciudad CCS [image: Part of yesterday's alternative media march in Caracas (Aporrea)] Part of yesterday's alternative media march in Caracas (Aporrea) Today we celebrate the national day of journalists in Venezuela. Because of this day, its worth remembering a phrase that was written in the streets of Argentina during the December 2001 crisis: They piss on us and the press says its raining. This aphorism captions the situation of the social media today. Readers are reading, listening, or watching the information they receive more and more carefully. However, the people of Venezuela have gone beyond that. Thanks to legal, technological, technical, and educational support from the government of the president, Hugo Chavez, and because of the determination of citizens after 2000, a national system of community and alternative media started to be born. Its a system which, even though it has a long way to go, is a symbol of collective organisation and the satisfying of everybodys right to communicate. So, today from 10am, alternative and community media will march from Venezuela Plaza to Llaguno bridge in support of collective organisation, grassroots communication, president Chavezs project, and against media manipulation. *Vindicating the peoples struggles* The director of alternative and community media with the communications ministry, Reinaldo Escorcia, explained that popular (grassroots) communication, a name we give to the non-profit community and alternative media, is what is happening in the hearts of the communities to promote social organisation and historical and cultural heritage in the geographic space where its being developed. The civil servant said that this type of communication aims to vindicate the struggles of the people and strengthen popular power. A fundamental characteristic of this media is that they have a direct relationship with the people. Further, they promote the creation of the content with the listeners through regular community assemblies, he said. The general coordinator of the Community Foundation Burate Arriba, in Bocono, Trujillo state, and communicator with Radio Libertad 99.3 FM in that area, Valentia Blanco, believes popular communication came out of the need to give the communities a voice so that they could practice their right to communicate... it was necessary to counter the private media which doesnt transmit correct or opportune information. *Before, they were persecuted* Escorcia considers the 2002 Regulation of Radio Difusion and Community Open Television for Public Service and Non Profit a landmark in popular communication: That was the first tool that gave those types of media legality. From that moment popular communication began to grow. He said that, even though popular communication existed during the Fourth Republic governments, it was persecuted. One of the founders of Catia TV, Leafar Guevara, agreed on that point: Community media at that time was illegal. She commented that that through such media the possibility to show the struggles and achievements of communities was opened up. The director of Radio National Venezuela (RNV) and member of the Necesary Journalism Movement, Helena Salcedo, has a similar opinion: Community journalists were persecuted under the freedom of the Fourth Republic. At that time information was totally hijacked. *Sustained growth* Escorcia said that from 2002 growth of popular media has been blooming. According to ministry of communication statistics, between that year and 2009, over 200 radio and television operators around Venezuela went to air. In that regard, the current list of popular media that the National Telecommunication Commission has on its website includes 244 radio stations and 36 television stations. Of those, the greatest number of radio stations are in Zulia state, with 26, followed by Merida wtih 21, and Lara with 19. In television, the states with more alternative and community channels are Aragua and Tachira, with 5, followed by Zulia and Miranda with 3. Regarding printed and digital media, the ministry civil servant said that there are currently more than 2015 print publications, and around 80 digital ones. Promotion of popular media is important because its spokespeople are the ones who are closest to the people. Salcedo believes that, thanks to the support of the Bolivarian government and to popular initiative, growth of this new form of journalism has allowed for freer and more plural communication to advance. Thats democratisation of communication ... popular media practices revolutionary and transformative action in communities so that the people can discuss not just their problems, but also solutions. *An autonomous movement* On the support provided by the Bolivarian government to the popular media, Escorcia pointed out its technical, technological, and educational support. The state is a companion in this process. The movement is autonomous and its respected as such. He explained that spokespeople of the popular media in each [regional] state meet and work together. Were very excited because were joining together around the country. The regional assemblies were holding are very interesting because they allow us to find each other, said Blanco. Guevara said that popular communicators have been constantly training in order to produce quality work. Theres an incipient growth thanks to the Bolivarian revolution that has opened up the radio-electric space and has supported the communication initiatives of the people. *A story that began with war* The national day of the journalist is celebrated each year on 27 June in commemoration of the date when the Correo del Orinco first began to circulate in 1818. The Correo was a newspaper created by the Republicans during the War of Independence to spread information about the cause, and to counter the Gazeta de Caracas, the Royalist publication. According to the Venezuelan News Agency (AVN), the Correo del Orinoco published decrees, proclamations, and news that the patriots wanted to circulate in support of their cause. 128 editions were published since that first one until the last one on 23 March 1822. In 1964, the now dead politician and editor of Diario Vea [a left wing newspaper] Guillermo Garcia Ponce, at the time a member of parliament for the Communist Party, proposed, from the San Carlos Barracks in Caracas (where he was prisoner, accused of military rebellion), that the National Day of the Journalist be celebrated the same day that the Correo del Orinoco came out for the first time. Thanks to his initiative the date is celebrated, AVN summarised. *Extra notes: yesterday's march* Yesterday's march presented a document by the National Command of Popular Communication. which rejected media terrorism and warned that if the capitalist media breaks the law or in any way supports another coup, it will be taken over by the people. It also supported the unity of alternative communicators. The document also included proposals for the Government Plan 2013-2019, which is currently under general discussion, and for the Popular Communication Law, under discussion in the national assembly. The National Command consists of spokespeople elected in region assemblies by alternative and community media workers and collaborators. *Translation and extra notes by Tamara Pearson for Venezuelanalysis.com.* ------------------------------ *Source URL (retrieved on 29/06/2012 - 8:10pm):* http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7080 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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