Venezuela slaps last independent broadcaster with "unpayable" fine

Oct 18, 2011, 21:05 GMT

Caracas - Venezuela's national communications regulator has fined independent news channel Globovision 7.5 per cent of gross earnings, more than 2 million dollars, for alleged violation of media laws.

'It's unpayable (...) There's no way to pay the fortune they've fined us,' said Globovision vice president Maria Fernanda Flores, speaking shortly after the ruling was announced.

The president of the Inter-American Press Association, Guillermo Marroquin, condemned the decision, calling it 'part of a government strategy to close the Globovisión channel under cover of legality.'

In a statement released on the organization's website Tuesday, he said the fine was 'a new act of aggression against the independent press of Venezuela, which unmasks the attitude that the government has always held against freedom of the press.'

The regulator, known as Conatel, says Globovision violated media responsibility laws with its reporting on the El Rodeo prison mutiny in June, when more than a thousand inmates rioted for days and 19 people died.

Conatel has accused Globovision of 'apologizing for crime' and manipulating video footage to include 'machine gun bursts' and 'clouds of smoke.' Globovision's legal adviser, Ricardo Antela, called the charges 'absolutely false' and said the decision was politically motivated.

'This decision was telegraphed (from the government), and sent from somewhere other than Conatel's social responsibility office,' he said after the ruling.

Globovision is the only remaining television channel in Venezuela openly critical of the government of president Hugo Chavez. Chavez has described the broadcaster as a 'sewer,' and has in the past demanded sanctions against it and threatened to take it off the air.

Conatel has levied legal charges and imposed fines against Globovision in the past, but this is the toughest punishment to date.