"This project is a weapon to defend us as a people and guarantee public freedoms," said Juan Barreto, a member of the committee which drafted the bill and a journalism professor at the Central University of Venezuela. It upholds "freedom of expression, which doesn't belong only to channels and journalists but also to the people," he said.
Many press rights advocates, however, disagree. They say the law, now before the Chavez-dominated Congress, will allow an increasingly authoritarian government to silence opposition ahead of a possible recall vote on Chavez's presidency. Chavez designed the Law for Social Responsibility in Radio and Television to bring "the news media to its knees," said Victor Ferreres, president of Venevision television.
"We would have to broadcast a blank screen and ignore almost everything that is occurring in the news" to comply with the law, Ferreres claimed.***
We don't even need Saudi Arabian oil!
Tyrants have a very predictable pattern. They stifle liberty and dissent by speciously and piously claiming to be protecting public decency. You know, it's "for the children."
This comes as no surprise.