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? '"

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[el americano]

RCTV are the victims of more Chavez authoritarianism and greed. If your allegations of inciting violence are true then it's a criminal matter, which deserves a presumably impartial courtroom to determine. Your comparison with the FBI fails, because under no circumstances would they steal the station's equipment and land. Moreover, since this is a political matter it makes it even worse than any of the state robbery that has been going on up to now. Silencing the political opposition moves you from being a socialist to being a fascist. So does criminalizing anti-government dissent. So does making himself president for life - when he gets around to that.