Mobile
Hugo Chávez gets 40% of Globovisión
Iñaki Ferreras ©RapidTVNews | 22-07-2010
The fight of the Venezuelan government against the opposition media is gaining ground in favour of Hugo Chávez with the president of the country winning over 40% of the shares of opposition-slanted national TV channel Globovisión.
Chávez’s move was made via the Venezuelan Federal Bank who owned 20% of Globovisión, and also with another party which controlled 5.8% of the private channel. All of these shares now go directly into the government’s hands.
“Currently we have 25.8% of Globovisión’s shares so we already have the right to name a representative on the Board of Directors,” the President declared.
The government now owns a further 20% share which was given to the late Luis Teófilo Núñez when Venezuela’s government gave the licence to Globovisión to start broadcasts more than a decade ago. On Núñez's death the Venezuelan authorities have the right to recuperate this percentage due to the fact that the licence has no heritage rights:radioelectric broadcasts belong to the State by law in Venezuela.
Globovisión is a Venezuelan national private TV news channel being threatened by the country’s president who alleges its editorial line is fighting against Chávez’s socialist project. Venezuelan judges have several processes ongoing against Globovisión’s president Guillermo Zuloaga and his son under the same name.
But Globovisión does not intend to surrender and it recently released a statement saying its editorial line does not depend on shares and is not to be expropiated nor sold out.
