Hugo "Tha Man" Chavez seeks to shut down second TV chanel that is critical to his administration. Chavez claims "There's no country in the world where there is so much freedom of expression," Anything to the contaray is labled "Capitalist, Imperialist lies"

Chavez moves against second opposition TV channel
Brian Ellsworth, Reuters
Published: Monday, May 28, 2007

    Hours after President Hugo Chavez shut down Venezuela's main opposition broadcaster, his government demanded an investigation of news network Globovision today for allegedly inciting an assassination attempt on the leftist leader.
    Mr. Chavez took Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, off the air at midnight yesterday and replaced it with a state-run channel to promote his socialist programs. The move sparked international condemnation and accusations from the opposition that he was undermining democracy in the OPEC nation.
    Seizing on the momentum of RCTV's closure, Communications Minister Willian Lara presented a case to the state prosector's office saying experts hired by the ministry had found that opposition broadcaster Globovision was inciting assassination attempts on Mr. Chavez.
    As evidence, he cited Globovision showing footage of an assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981 accompanied by the song "This Does Not Stop Here," sung by Ruben Blades, now Panama's minister of tourism.
    "The conclusion of the specialists ... is that (in this segment) they are inciting the assassination of the president of Venezuela," Mr. Lara told reporters at the prosecutor's office.
    Globovision was not immediately available to respond to the government's charge, but one of its reporters at the prosecutor's office said the footage was taken out of context.
    The journalist said Globovision had been showing archive footage from RCTV accompanied by songs with a farewell theme the week before RCTV's closure.
    At a Caracas news conference, Benoit Hervieu, Americas director at Reporters Without Borders, said: "Yesterday we saw the takeover of the principal media critical of President Chavez. ... Besides Globovision, what television media is left that can criticize the government of Mister Chavez?"
    Mr. Chavez's reforms, since he assumed the presidency in 1999, have given him greater control over the country's judiciary, the military and the oil sector.
    Critics had said an independent media was the only safeguard against Mr. Chavez forging a Cuban-style regime. The closure of RCTV leaves Globovision as the main media voice opposed to Mr. Chavez, but it does not broadcast nationwide.
    Venezuela's opposition media has been widely accused of violating basic journalistic standards. Mr. Chavez accuses both Globovision and RCTV of backing a bungled 2002 coup against him.
    RCTV ran movies and cartoons when protests by Mr. Chavez supporters turned the tide in Mr. Chavez's favor during the 2002 coup. It also joined a grueling two-month strike that year by showing only anti-Chavez propaganda and marches for weeks.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=9afed4e1-b750-4f12-8325-bdd7629b6f4f