Venezuelan authorities take foreign cable station off the air

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.cpj.org/2014/02/venezuelan-authorities-take-foreign-cable-station.php






Bogotá, February 13, 2014--Venezuelan authorities took a Colombian news station off the air on Wednesday after the station aired coverage of anti-government protests that have left three people dead and dozens injured, according to the station and news reports.


Claudia Gurisatti, director of the 24-hour cable news station NTN24, said that the station found out on Wednesday afternoon that CONATEL, Venezuela's telecommunications regulator, had issued an official statement ordering DirecTV and Movistar, the two cable providers that carry the station in the country, to take it off the air.

Idania Chirinos, director of content for the 24-hour cable news station NTN24 and a Venezuelan journalist, said she did not know if or when NTN24 would be allowed back on the air in Venezuela. The station's reports are accessible in the country via Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, according to Carlos Correa, director of the Caracas-based freedom of expression organization Espacio Público. Correa said the station's website had been attacked by hackers and was briefly unavailable on Wednesday.

NTN24 is owned by the Bogotá, Colombia-based RCN radio and TV group and transmits throughout the Americas. The station provides extensive coverage of Venezuela and is often extremely critical of the country's socialist government. "This is an act of press censorship and an abuse of the rights of citizens to be informed," said Gurisatti in the statement.