IPYS Instituto Prensa y Sociedad Venezuela
On August 27, 2013, a decision was made to withdraw an info news and opinion program scheduling from Global TV, an open-signal channel located in Maracaibo, Zulia state. This local media also left the scheduling grid of cable TV operators since August 25.
The TV channel´s directors received no formal announcement on the media´s withdrawal from the scheduling grid of cable TV services, so this measure took them by surprise. The National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel), an executive power entity, and private cable operators have not offered details on this situation.
In a communique through its Twitter account, Net-Uno (NetunoOficial), a company which offers cable TV services, explained to Letty Vásquez, representative of the Zulia chapter of the CNP “due to the incorporation of a new state-owned channel, entitled Conciencia TV and due to the lack of capacity in our channel grid, we have been forced to withdraw a free-signal and free-of-charge channel”, in reference to the Global TV case.
When consulted on this situation, Guido Briceño, president of Global TV, affirmed to IPYS Venezuela that “he does not wish to enter into speculations”, and preferred to wait until Monday September 2 for the cable TV operators to offer a response on what transpired. Briceño attended some meetings to deal with this situation, but no details were disclosed.
The program continues to be aired under its open-signal frequency through local 65 UHF channel.
The channel´s staff journalists continue to be in the street without covering hot news, nor political nor events news. The opinion programs have also been suspended. The directors of Global TV notified its personnel that they would be off the air “for at least two weeks”, as stated by some of the employees. For now, they are doing advance work, tourist-related work and on local entrepreneurs.
Nikary González, representative of the National College of Journalists (CNP for its acronyms in Spanish), pointed out that “A communicational hegemony is being instated here”. This syndicated organization also deemed this incident as an attack on freedom of expression.
Global TV and Atel Televisión are two of Zulia´s TV channels which have been affected since they were pulled out of the scheduling grid of subscription or cable TV services. The CNP laments that in Zulia there is now only television channels that show one single political party vision in this region.
Label: suspensions
