RCTV has been one of the most consistent opponents of the Chavez government and in the 2002 coup attempt it was one of the main protaganists in terms of organising and executing aspects of the coup. RCTV reported (falsely) that Chavez supporters had fired at demonstrators which allowed disgruntled generals to walk away from the government.

I'm surprised it wasn't immediately shut down after the 2004 recall, not sure I would have had the same patience.

I don't necessarily condone the decision, but the situation is certainly more complex than forcing "...a television station critical of his leftist government off the air".

Hello media, do you know you indirectly kill Venezuelans every day? You inspire and report the enemy's objective every day. You are the enemy's greatest weapon. The enemy cannot beat us in the voting booth so all he does is try to wreak enough havoc and have you report it every day. With you and the enemy using each other, you continually break the will of the Venezuelan public and Venezuelan government.

 That people here actually defend what Chavez has done is not surprising. If it was a right-wing government which shut down a broadcaster and claimed it was "saving  lives" or "improving" communications these same folks would be foaming at the mouth with outrage and no doubt hypothesizing that the CIA was behind it.

  It's this type of blind devotion to ideology with no respect for higher pronciples that is so frightening abiout much of what gets written here. The justification of naked repression when it is done by those with similar views is still the justification of naked repression.

  Too many people here ARE for repression-- we saw it last week with the diatribes against Christian schools and we see it again here. People who advocate or justify  repression of opposing views are the foot soldiers of authoritarianism and the enmeies of freedom.

  The topic here is Chavez's decision to shutdown a television outlet that he considers a dissenting voice.

  Opinions on THAT should be reached independcently of any views about our media and politics. We could have  a totalitarian government that rigidly controlled all expression or we could be a perfectly open society with absolute free expression and it should not change your view of Chavez's action.

  The attempt to argue that the "MSM" is not as vigilant in exposing government malfeasance as it should be justifies police-state tactics by a regime elsewhere is foolish.

  The argument that because the USA has exerted influence on foreign governments to undermine sovereignty and the expression of the popular will in other nations it is acceptable for their governments  to DO PRECISELY THAT if the government is not friendly to the USA is beyond foolish.

  Here's a thought. It's wrong for any side to do it-- AND-- when one regime is oppressive it makes it far more likely that the next will be repressive too. If one considers, the possibility that the NEXT regime might just be a "puppet" it probably won't be  helpful to the cause of freedom  for that government to inherit a society with a closed press and little existing outlet for dissent. Doing this today will make it easier for a right-wing regime to be oppressive in the future.

  Freedom is good. Enemeies of freedom are bad and they feed off of each other -- usually at the expense of those who want to be free. The elites change with some frequency but the tactics much less so.

Chavez:

"I'm going to warn them before the nation... I recommend they take a tranquilizer, that they slow down, because if not, I'm going to slow them down." ...

Chavez did not elaborate, but also warned that radio stations should not be inciting violence by "manipulating feelings" among the populace.

Perhaps RCTV broke the law, called for assassination. Who knows - the "facts" are slippery here. What's worrisome is the "I" - the rule of the man, the caudillo, not the rule of law.

About the rest, the question is By what right does RCTV or any other privately held entity hold its licence to broadcast over the natural public resource of the public airwaves? You'll note RCTV hasn't been silenced, they still are on cable, just their use of the public airwaves has been taken away.

Examples of utilities are:

-An electric utility, which in some instances can be electric power transmission or electricity distribution organizations.
-Drinking water purification and distribution
-Sewage treatment and disposal
-Other waste disposal
-Natural gas distribution
-District heat generation and distribution
-Public transport
-Telecomunications, such as cable television and telephone lines
-Roads, including tollways

RCTV's license was given to a state-sponsored station called TVes which now broadcasts on ch 2. TVes is not a public company, in the sense that Microsoft is a public company.

TVes is broadcasting using RCTV's privately-owned broadcast assets that had been seized by the gvt after the gvt refused to renew RCTV's license.

Ever hear of the (heartily supported by latter day Big Tenters) Espionage Act and HUAC?

A bit (translated):

Four are wounded by bullets after incidents in Venezuela.
...
The student march continued normally during the better part of the morning and the midday hours, but this afternoon, police officers on motorcyle began to disolve the protest with tear gas and rubber bullets.

More links and video of shooting and gas attacks available: