(IPYS/IFEX) – On 19 January 2009, unidentified individuals threw teargas canisters into the home of Marcel Granier, general manager of the RCTV International TV station in Caracas. Granier was not at home at the time of the attack. The teargas, however, affected his relatives and neighbours. Granier said that the attack was perpetrated by a […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 19 January 2009, unidentified individuals threw teargas canisters into the home of Marcel Granier, general manager of the RCTV International TV station in Caracas.
Granier was not at home at the time of the attack. The teargas, however, affected his relatives and neighbours. Granier said that the attack was perpetrated by a group “which is financed by the national government”. He pointed out that a similar incident took place near Christmas 2008, when teargas canisters were also thrown at his home. He said that he did not report publicly on the previous incident “in order to avoid disrupting the peace of the country’s citizens,” although he did file a complaint with the national Prosecutor General’s Office.
During the last few months there have been similar attacks against the headquarters of Globovisión TV station, the “El Nuevo País” newspaper, the building where the host of the “Aló Ciudadano” programme broadcast by Globovisión, Leopoldo Castillo, lives and against the building where journalist Marta Colomina, the host of an editorial programme on Radio Unión and columnist for the “El Universal” newspaper, lives in Caracas. The attacks have been attributed to a collective known as “La Piedrita”, a group formed in a Caracas neighbourhood that supports the government.
RCTV Internacional is a subscription-only TV station since the license that allowed RCTV to broadcast via open signal was revoked in May 2007. Granier has maintained a critical position regarding Chávez’s government.
For further information on the attack against Colomina, see: http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/99095
For further information on the attack against Castillo, see: http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/97992
For further information on the attack against “El Nuevo País”, see: http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/97661
For further information on the most recent teargas attack against Globovisión claimed by “La Piedrita”, see: http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/99593
For further information on the cancelling of RCTV’s licence for broadcasting via open signal, see: http://ifex.org/en/content/view/full/95995
