TV channel shut down by Chavez not silent
It projects shows on walls in Caracas, uses the Net, and relies on a U.S.-based network.
MIAMI - The government of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez may have yanked Radio Caracas Television off the air, but it has not been able to silence it.
RCTV, which officially folded on May 27 after the government turned over its license to a state-funded public channel, has not stopped producing telenovelas, comedies and newscasts. It is slipping its signal to viewers through creative means - in Caracas, Venezuela, and in Miami.
The oldest TV channel in Venezuela is using the Internet, projections in public squares and housing complexes in Caracas, and arrangements with former competitors to continue broadcasting.
In Miami, the Telefutura and Galavision networks, both owned by Univision Communications, have continued to telecast two RCTV telenovelas and one serial, while TV Venezuela, a satellite channel based in Key Biscayne with nationwide coverage through DirecTV, is adding more content produced by RCTV.
RCTV International, which operates from northwest Miami, has not stopped selling and distributing telenovelas in more than 40 countries, the company management said.
Last week, RCTV signed an accord with Caracol Television of Colombia to rebroadcast part of its programming through Caracol's Latin American network. In Venezuela, the news channel Globovision gave RCTV several time-slots to broadcast its main newscast, El Observador, and its most popular sitcom, Radio Rochela.
El Observador has also been broadcasting on Youtube.com.
"Everybody at RCTV is giving out his best, and every time we find an opportunity to take that work to the public, we do it," Marcel Granier, RCTV's president, said in a phone interview from Bogota, Colombia, where he was negotiating with Colombian companies.
RCTV's international strategy "has brought good results, because the whole world has turned its eyes to Venezuela," said Alberto Federico Ravell, executive director of Globovision, the last opposition broadcaster in Venezuela after RCTV's closure.
Chavez said he was considering suspending Globovision's license as well, accusing both channels of backing a 2002 coup against him and violating various broadcast laws.
If Globovision is taken off the air, Ravel said, it will follow RCTV's example.
"We shall continue to broadcast by any means possible, from a loudspeaker to a street-corner refreshment stand."