Venezuelan Information Minister resigns over official footage copyright row (Updated III)

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Venezuelan Information Minister resigns over official footage copyright row

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UPDATES: On Friday 30 May 2008, Venezuelan President rejected the resignation of Andres Izarra and ratified him in the post of Minister of Communication and Information. Izarra also heads regional Telesur.  

On Thursday 29 May 2008, Official TV station VTV announced the annulment of the decision to charge for its footage on government activities. It stated that such administrative turn was a decision of the Ministry of Communication and Information. The Director of the Opposition TV network Globovision, Federio Ravell, welcomed the rectification of that administrative provision.  Furthermore, a pro government journalist and MP Earle Herrera had objected the provision to charge the official coverage footage as it was inspired by neo liberal principles. Among Venezuelan, there is a joke on this most unusual policy. They nicknamed the quiting minister as Andrés "Thatcher" Izarra linking his proposed policy to the British Prime Minister responsible for a privatization drive few decades ago. However, it is still unclear whether President Chavez would accept his resignation or allow him to continue conducting regional Telesur.

Caracas, Venezuela, 27 May 2008. This afternoon, the Venezuelan Minister for Information and Communication, Andrés Izarra, resigned over the dispute on planned copyright charges for the use of audiovisual official information from 1 June 2008. The official VTV would charge US$40 per second of its footage.  In his resignation announcement, Ex Minister Izarra stated the decision to charge private TV networks for the use of official VTV footage had not been consulted with him. Apparently, this most unusual decision was taken by VTV President ,Yuri Pimental, without proper consultation with other government departments and instances. However, local newspaper El Nacional states otherwise: It was Izarra who took the decision and then took full responsability for the blunder as he did not consult fellow ministers nor other governmental officials.   

Today, it was unveiled that official VTV planned to charge footage copyrights in an attempt to make ends meet. Such decision drew criticism from different media quarters as it would impair the right to information and freedom of speech of Venezuelans. Furthermore, it would cause serious damage to the promotion of official information as private TV networks would not be ready to pay for it or air it promptly.

This event takes place while some members of the official governing alliance - PCV (Party of Venezuela) and Patria para todos (Country for All) - have objected their exclusion from VTV decision taking and coverage. They claim that official United Socialist Party (PSUV) has control over VTV coverage and widely promotes its candidates of during the current internal election campaign. They also state that PSUV excludes other official parties from VTV coverage.  

Furthermore, this event adds to the student demonstration in favour of RCTV today. They intend to demonstrate again tomorrow. Last year, the Chavez´s administration abstained from renewing the boradcast licence of prvate RCTV. It allocated its signal to public service official TVES. A year after the suspension, RCTV continues to air its programmes by cable and TVES has a very little audience.   

Andres Izarra was appointed Minister for Information twice during the current Chavez administration. He has also chaired regional TV Netowork Telesur. Prior to his Venezuelan working experieces, Andres Izarra worked for CNN and NBC as journalist. He has no under graduate degree though.  A member of a local Venezuelan wealthy family and the son of Willian Izarra (a retired military and flamboyant self proclaimed Bolivarian ideologist), Andres Izarra came to fame during the aftermath of the 2002 coup against  President Chavez. He resigned as RCTV Executive Producer after objecting editorial constrains over information on the 2002 coup. Izarra was pointed as the drive behind the interviews and visits to Venezuela of famed actors - Sean Pen, Dany Grover and Kevin Spacey- and British model Naomi Campbell.  In a more surprising trun in 2005, he married, Isabel González Capriles, a well known journalist of opposition Globovision.  

Regional Telesur has remained muted over the resignation. Its web page does not report the event at all.

Sources: Globovision, VTV, Unionradio, RNV, El Universal, BBCMundo, El Nacional, PrInside, Tal Cual,  

Related stories: RCTV Cancellation: a year after (updated), Naomi Campbell meets Chavez (updated), Sean Penn visits Venezuela and meets President Chavez,  May 29, 2007: The RCTV-TVES saga, May 27th, 2007: RCTV cancellation day, RCTV cancellation: Legal and popular?, RCTV closure: Legal and popular? (part II), Chávez: US defeated at OAS over RCTV, RCTV returns by cable TV (updated), Baruch Ivcher on RCTV