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New regulations in Venezuela will require cable and satellite TV channels to carry speeches by President Hugo Chavez on a regular basis.

The measures will apply to those stations that produce more than 70% of their content within Venezuela.

The BBC correspondent in Caracas says this will apply to dozens of international broadcasters, which will be considered national stations.

Government opponents said it was an attack on freedom of speech.

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The broadcasts, known as "cadenas", are part of Venezuelan life under Mr Chavez and can last up to five hours.

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The minister overseeing broadcast licensing, Diosdado Cabello, said it was all part of bringing greater democracy to Venezuela's media landscape.

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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — At the Channel 36 TV station in this sweltering capital, the buzzing, hectic atmosphere of a news network has been replaced by an ominous silence. The doors are held shut with huge industrial padlocks, bored-looking soldiers stand on the sidewalk and the journalists are nowhere to be seen. Since taking power Sunday after a coup against elected-president Manuel Zelaya, the new administration has shut down a major TV station, several radio stations and a newspaper. It has also cut off signals from some international networks, including Venezuela-based Telesur.

Meanwhile, those media outlets still running heap praise on the regime of Roberto Micheletti. "Defending the Constitution," blears the headline in one newspaper reporting the consolidation of the new government. "Zelaya Out, We Want Peace," says another. Such control of the media is perhaps a predictable development from a government that came to power after the elected head of state was forced out of his home at gunpoint and taken on a plane to neighboring Costa Rica. But the media battle over the Honduras coup also reflects larger news-related issues as leftist governments have risen to power in the region.

Longstanding commercial networks controlled by wealthy families have often had head-on collisions with leftist leaders, who accuse them of undermining their governments. In reaction, business interests accuse stations controlled by leftist presidents of demonizing the rich and dividing nations along class lines.

"The media across Latin America has become much more polarized in recent years. There is more of an atmosphere of saying, "You have to be with us or against us," said Elan Reyes, president of Honduras' journalist association.

In power, the left-leaning Zelaya had a fiery relationship with the dominant TV channels in Honduras, which are controlled by some of the nation's richest families. {NOTE: Now we know who wanted this coup} When they criticized him for raising the minimum wage by more than 50 percent, saying he was clobbering business, he lashed back, alleging that they were part of an "elite group" of oligarchs who want to keep the poor downtrodden. {NO SHIT}

Fighting for control of the airwaves, he set up a government Channel 8, which celebrated his achievements and loyally showed him traipsing through poor villages hugging corn growers and banana workers. "The big channels had always focused on the lives and opinions of the rich. Channel 8 started looking at the stories and struggles of poor people," said Cesar Fernandez, a TV producer who worked with the station. The privately owned Channel 36 also gave favorable coverage to Zelaya, a friend and ally of its owner. Within hours of the coup, soldiers had swept on Channel 36 installations and cut its signals from the air. In the days since, the government Channel 8 has radically changed its tune, and has been pumping out messages all day calling on Hondurans to take to the streets in demonstrations in favor of the new regime.

"Honduras needs you participate now!" says one message flashing on the screen. "We have a legitimate government supported by all Hondurans," says another. The battle lines over TV coverage here were strikingly similar to the south, in Venezuela, under President Hugo Chavez, a staunch Zelaya ally. Chavez also accused commercial TV stations of being pawns of the rich and said they backed an attempted coup against him in 2002. In 2007, Chavez refused to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television Internacional, the nation's most popular station, accusing it of irresponsible anti-government coverage. He has also helped form the cable group Telesur, which provides left-leaning coverage across the region.

On Monday, troops in Honduras stormed into a hotel and detained a Telesur crew as its members were conducting a live broadcast. The crew was released after several hours, although transmission of the channel in Honduras was soon cut off. Pro-Zelaya supporters say that without any television or radio networks supporting them, it is harder to organize protests. However, they say the movement is coordinating through word of mouth and text messages and they are planning huge demonstrations on Saturday when Zelaya has promised to return to Honduras.

"The TV stations are sold out to the new regime. But we don't need them to get out on the streets," said Rony Orellana, a 24-year-old teacher who was marching for Zelaya alongside beating tropical drums. "They cannot keep fooling the people for ever."

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This must be a definition of "Democracy" with which I was not previously familiar.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Unlike the new Micheletti regime in Honduras, which has allowed the media to freely broadcast images of pro-Zelaya demonstrations?

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Originally posted by SignyM:
It does no good if "the government" relinquishes control, only to be replaced by an equally biased, unrepresentative faction, whether that faction is a group of wealthy landowners or a extremist group of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

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Fighting for control of the airwaves, he set up a government Channel 8, which celebrated his achievements and loyally showed him traipsing through poor villages hugging corn growers and banana workers...The privately owned Channel 36 also gave favorable coverage to Zelaya, a friend and ally of its owner.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
I believe media should accurately represent "facts on the ground". If Venezuelan media as currently constituted is biased that's a problem. If you can make that case, I'll toss them into the pile along with the rest of the bad actors.

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Or Zelaya and his friends?

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Fighting for control of the airwaves, he set up a government Channel 8, which celebrated his achievements and loyally showed him traipsing through poor villages hugging corn growers and banana workers...The privately owned Channel 36 also gave favorable coverage to Zelaya, a friend and ally of its owner.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
If an "opposition" is broadcasting lies, I'm not sure if I care that they're shut down.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
How about: The Jews are creating this recession? Shall we print that?

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Originally posted by SignyM:
There are two ways to ensure media accuracy:

1) Hold each purveyor to some standard of truthfulness.

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2) Allow everyone free access to the media, with no control over content.

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You can't have powerful economic interests in control of the media AND have no restrictions on content, otherwise you'll wind up like any other tinpot dictatorship with only one POV allowed, which is sheer propaganda.

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So, which do you prefer, geezer? Kicking the wealthy out of their seat of power, or requiring that content bears some element of truth... or both?

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So, which do you prefer, geezer? Kicking the wealthy out of their seat of power...? Signy

Neither. Geezer

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Oh, so you like the wealthy being in charge.

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And when it comes to standing up for "net neutrality" you close your eyes and plug your ears...

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Such measures come at no easy time for Tegucigalpa, which felt the effects of the global economic downturn before the coup. The country’s $14 billion economy contracted by 3.6 percent in the first half of 2009 compared to 3.1 percent growth during the period in 2008. Honduran exports dropped by 15 percent in the first quarter, likely hurt by U.S. economic woes. The United States, its main trading partner, accounts for 70 percent of the country’s exports. With fuel prices rising, the country’s economy was dealt another blow when Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, a close Zelaya ally, announced in July that his country would stop Petrocaribe oil shipments to Honduras. The curfews and protests waged in the country since the coup have also bitten the Honduran tourism industry, with hotel occupancy down by figures in the double digits.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Oh, BTW- Anthony, you're being a dick. And Geezer: you've always been one.

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Originally posted by Geezer:
Got anything actually relevent?

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

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Originally posted by Geezer:
Got anything actually relevent?

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[River voice]
Do you?
[/River voice]

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This pretty much defines your level of discourse.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
I noticed that you had nothing to say about the situation in Honduras.

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human rights groups and numerous other outside observers report that at least a dozen people have been killed for their political activities since the coup, more than 3,500 detained for peacefully demonstrating, and hundreds beaten while in custody. There's plenty of blood flowing, just one indication of the massive wave of repression ripping through Honduras.... In response, repression has escalated dramatically. Nonviolent demonstrators are routinely rounded up, beaten while in custody and denied medical care, while never charged with a specific crime. The military routinely launches tear gas at protesters without provocation. As Amnesty International reports, "beatings and mass arrests are being used as a way of punishing people for voicing their opposition to the military-backed coup."

Women protesters can face worse. On Aug. 14, a young mother was grabbed by police while participating nonviolently in a large protest. They separated her from male detainees and drove her out of town, where four officers of the National Police raped her and then raped her again with a baton. Rapes while in custody, assassinations and disappearances that are terrorizing Hondurans remain largely unreported in the U.S. press. On July 11, for example, Roger Ivan Bados, a longtime trade unionist and activist in the opposition party Union Democrática, was forcibly removed from his home and killed. Others who participate in demonstrations or other activities have been kidnapped, then found dead.

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We've previously noted that some key members of the coup regime power structure – notably business magnate Adolfo Facusse and Liberal Party presidential nominee Elvin Santos – had begun waxing aloud to find a scapegoat for the illegality of the June 28 coup d’etat. They had both settled on the Armed Forces, and the “original sin” of all that has gone awry since, according to them, was that the military shipped elected President Manuel Zelaya out of the country instead of arraigning him to face prosecution.

“There was an error by a certain sector {ie the military},” Micheletti said today in an interview in Tegucigalpa. “It wasn’t correct. We have to punish whoever allowed that to happen. The rest was framed within what the constitution requires.” …A mistake was made when Zelaya, still wearing pajamas, was put on a plane to Costa Rica instead of being held for trial, Micheletti said.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Yanno Geezer, in the other thread you took exception to the But BUSH... style of argument, and here you are with But VENEZUELA...

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The following human rights problems were reported: unlawful killings by members of the police and government agents; arbitrary and summary killings committed by vigilantes and former members of the security forces; violence against detainees by security forces; harsh prison conditions; corruption and impunity within the security forces; failure to provide due process of law; lengthy pretrial detention; politicization of the judiciary, judicial corruption, and institutional weakness; erosion of press freedom; corruption in the legislative and executive branches; government restrictions on recognition of some nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); violence and discrimination against women; child prostitution and abuse; trafficking in persons; discrimination against indigenous communities; violence and discrimination against persons based on sexual orientation; ineffective enforcement of labor laws; and child labor.

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Originally posted by dreamtrove:
your first points are not strong ones, any dictatorship would do the same.

here are some other things he's been info: Deforestation, relocation programs for native populations, similar to our own. An arms race.

That the US has done something, as I started out, is not a defense. Using this logic, dropping nuclear bombs on civilian populations is acceptable. So are genocide and slavery.

What this US does is irrelevent to, this isn't about US policy, it's about Venezuela.

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Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Gino

No, the thread is about venezuela. Not that you see me defending the US on these issues, but if you want to talk about another topic, start another thread.

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Originally posted by Geezer:

Oh, and let's not forget the President who was found by the country's Supreme Court to have repeatedly violated the Constitution. Would you support such a President?

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Originally posted by rue:
Does Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Socialist Revolution represent a threat to the security of the United States ....

NO

... what, if anything, should we do about it?

NOTHING

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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Originally posted by dreamtrove:
Gino,

1. There is no way that the elections are credible. I've yet to meet a venezuelan or south american who supports him.

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2. He is constantly arming revolutions in neighboring countries.

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3. I agree on land reform, but I don't like what he has done with it, but that's a personal policy dispute. I favor native sovereignty and environmentalism, and am no fan of socialism.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by Geezer:

Oh, and let's not forget the President who was found by the country's Supreme Court to have repeatedly violated the Constitution. Would you support such a President?

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Would you?

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Abraham Lincoln.

So shall we run the Dixie Flag back up the pole, then ?

-F

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by Geezer:

Oh, and let's not forget the President who was found by the country's Supreme Court to have repeatedly violated the Constitution. Would you support such a President?

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Would you?

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Show me a President found by his country's Supreme Court to have repeatedly violated the Constitution, and probably not. The last one in the U.S. was...

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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