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Venezuela's Contrarian TV Station Survives on YouTube
carlos_J writes "Ars Technica is running a story about RCTV, a Venezuelan television station whose broadcast license was refused renewal by the government. In response, the station turned to YouTube to get its message out. Says Ars, 'El Observador clips have been seen 175,000 times since May 28, and the channel is currently the most-subscribed channel of the week. While putting the station's shows on YouTube is an excellent idea, YouTube still lacks anything near the reach of over-the-air broadcasts. But the use of the site to avoid censorship is growing, and it's not hard to imagine a day in the near future when the site (or sites like it) becomes as essential as local TV stations. As that happens, YouTube will come into even more conflicts with governments that have an interest in controlling what their citizens see, It's already happening--Thailand's king, for instance, has a thing for iPods but isn't too keen on YouTube. Will Hugo Chavez show more tolerance? '"
Interesting, First is was for showing him in a bad light. Now it is for participating in a Coup.
I seriously wonder why they people who run that station hasn't been arrested. I mean overthrowing your government is a crime after all. Ahhh, maybe they didn't participate but rather aired stuff that wasn't favorable to the almighty himself. Well, then we are back to the he didn't renew it because they criticized him.
I find it extremely ironic that the person who called Bush evil is now Evil and is being protested by the millions in his own country. A far larger single protest turnout then any of the opposition in America could organize. Maybe Venezuela is just that much bigger then America or maybe they just pick their battles.
Given recent decisions by numerous web content providers I would think YouTube will be blocking the rogue broadcasters after short blackout of the site by the offended country.
The minute YouTube began actively filtering submissions (in other situations) they opened themselves to accountability for all submissions.
I have to think that user tagging/moderation would have been a better way to go... That type of system is actually the main reason I prefer this news site over most others. It allows the website to actually take a stand on many types of speech issues instead of being forced to bow down to whatever entity gets pissy with them.
Regards.
what you described has already happened. and no one lost their broadcast license. Even with the evil Republican winning in the end. OR maybe you are more concerned about someone like a democrat would do something like this. They have been palling around with Chaves recently. We have troups, spys and military operations were people are getting killed and run a higher risk of getting killed because the news keeps telling the enemy about the secrete operations we are conducting against them. When you have brave men and women losing their lives because of the information some news station decided was newsworthy enough to tell the enemy about, and they still have their license, I seriously don't think anything will invoke treason charges on the station.
In america, Right or wrong, we reguard the news as the ultimate political speech and it is the most protected speech out there. If the news said Bush quit to save his own life and later retracted it, nothing would have happened to them outside their creditability being shot. Seriously, the news can fuck up an entire election and not get retaliated against. What makes you think anything else would be treated differently?
is that hugo chavez's socialist policies are supported by oil revenue... oil revenue mostly from the great capitalist satan to the north
it's ironic for both countries. for the usa, it is ironic that it is american dollars via their gas guzzling suvs that fuels this vociferous critic of the usa
for venezuela, it is ironic for the same reason. there is no inherent strength in socialist economic policies. but it doesn't matter when your economy is enjoying massive inflows of foreign wealth... foreign capitalist wealth. if only castro were so lucky to be sitting on a giant fountain of oil, eh? but castro is enjoying a foreign inflow of aid himself... from chavez... who again, gets it from the usa via oil. its hilarious
without american dollars via oil revenue, there would be no chavez. chavez is just a giant gasbag demagogue. but i don't mind him. if he uses all of that oil money to actually aid the poor, rather than going to a few rich venezuelans, well then good for chavez. for doing that, he can demonify the usa all he wants. bush raped the pope, bush drinks oil from iraqi children's skulls, blah blah blah, whatever. let him hurl his invectives forever. it's just a lot of hot air, demagoguery in the service of solidfying political base via antipathy towards the usa. who cares. keep aiding the poor chavez, and you can say whatever you want about bush
i mean its not like he's using his oil revenue to fund reactionary wahabbi islamic madrassas that fuels fundamentalist islamic terrorism that revisits american shores in the form of 9/11, right?
now what country would that be? (COUGH our good "friends" the saudis COUGH)
hey america: you like your big oil guzzling suv huh?
well, via $, it brings you chavez, via $ it brings you osama bin laden, and via global warming it brings you hurricane katrina
still like your gas guzzling suv dear american suburbanite?
your paying a pretty penny for it, way above and beyond that soon to be $4/ gallon pricetag
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"Mission Acomplished" (probably dressed as a paratrooper in a chinese aircraft carrier, a la Bush).
RCTV was the channel with the most geographical reach (nearly 100% of the country). Here in Venezuela, the "regional TV station" is a very recent phenomenon. Most of the TV stations are repeaters of national chains, and being the oldest, RCTV had the most coverage.
By replacion RCTV with a new station, Chavez acomplishes two goals, get out of the way a big nuance, and replacing that signal with on he can easily control (he is not controlling it yet, but now is quite easy).
In a country were internet penetration is low, and Broadband even lower, and where internet is mostly used by people who already opose Chavez, loosing the free/broadcast opposing medium is quite a blow for disension (I will not YET claim is a loss in freedom of expression).
Anyway, as I sit here (in Maracay http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maracay) configuring my new laptop, I receive (Radio, MSN, SMS) reports of protests all over the country... But do not be fooled, these are not riots (thanks the lord), and Chavez already survived a general 3 month strike. Therefore, in about two weeks the protests will subside, the thing will be forgoten, and the same university students who are protesting now will be watching RCTV in YouTube using the campus broadband...
Is a pitty...
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
Acutally, you can say he is brutal. According to the Amnesty International 2006 Report for Venezuela, torture, extrajudicial executions, and enforced disappearances continue to go unpunished. These types of actions are hardly taken by the benevolent, fatherly type of "liberator" Chavez likes to portray. Simon Bolivar would be rolling in his grave if he knew Chavez renamed Venezuela the Bilovaran Republic. Even the Special Rapporteur for the Organization of American States filed a report that harshly criticized the Chavez regime's targetting of journalists, including beatings, threats, and incarceration. Face it, he ain't no O'Higgins or Bolivar. He is a thug in a good suit and calls himself the President.
Whatever wrong you can accuse Bush of doing, Chavez has verifiably done . I should add arm-twisting of the media to that list...
Except waging an actual war — Venezuela is too weak for that... He is the curse of the country — as soon as the oil price comes back down (and it will), Venezuela will turn into Zimbabwe.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.