Caracas, Apr 23 ABN - The Venezuelan Government guarantees the complete freedom of expression in the media, as long as the right to speech does not represent a threat to the country's democracy, expressed on Thursday Telesur president, Andres Izarra.

“In Venezuela, it is granted the freedom of speech, but there are expressions that infringe the human rights because entail in hatred; racism; incitement to violence; racial, gender, religion and nationality segregation, which represent a very tense situation that the private media use and it constitutes one of the greatest threats to the Venezuelan democracy,” he stressed.

During a special session about the Right to Freedom of Thought and Expression and the Importance of the Media, held at the Organization of American States (OAS), Izarra explained that despite that, in Venezuela exists a preponderance of private franchisees in the use of the radioelectrical space over the community and public concessionaires.

“In the year 2000, there were 19 franchisees in the private television in DHF frequency and a public concessionaire. Also, there were 28 private concessionaires in UHF and two public, while by 2006 it increased significantly. Evidence of it is that the UHF spectrum almost doubled the private operators and for the first time it was established community communication,” he explained.

Likewise, Izarra expressed that from the year 2000 to 2006, it went from 30 to 78 concessions; in the radio it went from 368 concessions in amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) up to 617, it is to say that the number of granted concessions almost doubled. Besides, due to the Law on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television has been allowed the inclusion to 5 hours and 30 minutes of programs produced by national independent producers.

He added that in 2007, there were registered 10 thousand 778 independent producers who were financed with 19.6 billion bolivares, it means, almost 10 million dollars for these productions. It was also added the use of sign language so as to inform the people who suffer hearing problems.

Finally, Izarra stressed that with the creation of the social television Tves, it was decided to develop a station for pubic service to benefit the people, and he explained that for such reason it was decided to use the most favorable frequency and so it was not renewed the concession to Radio Caracas Television (RCTV).  

Bolivarian News Agency