<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Well, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Chavez isn't using tyranny. I've been having discussions with a Venezuelan bloke here in Sydney who was vehemently opposed to Chavez when we first discussed him. But the more he reads etc the more unsure he becomes, and the more. In our last email he wrote, "I'm confronted with the paradox, of the more I know the more I realise that I don't know... It was easy to be completely anti Chavez..."<br><br>There is also plenty of evidence to suggest he is righting wrongs from previous governments where deals have been done to favour the establishment. And this has caused outrage against from the establishment.<br><br>There is much more to Chavez than his outspoken words against the US, including education policies ensuring people (at least some) who would have
never received an education under previous governments are now receiving one.<br><div><div style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br>David<br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: Milton L Mueller <mueller@syr.edu><br>To: governance@lists.cpsr.org; Rui Correia <correia.rui@gmail.com>; Carlos Afonso <ca@rits.org.br><br>Sent: Friday, 5 October, 2007 11:22:10 AM<br>Subject: RE: [governance] Rwanda and media<br><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">No time now to get into the details of
Venezuela , but my opposition to
US coercion is
consistent over time, I do not need to be lectured about it. I do hope that
dialogue about freedom of expression does not fall into the trap of justifying
tyranny on the basis of who the tyranny is used against. That’s what the
US does (we must intervene to stop
communism/terrorism/etc) and that’s what Hugop does (I must have absolute
power because I’m the savior against the
US ). False dichotomy. Thought these
kinds of debates died with the Cold War but I guess not. </span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"> Rui Correia
[mailto:correia.rui@gmail.com] <br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, October 04, 2007
10:25 AM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> governance@lists.cpsr.org ;
Carlos Afonso<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [governance]
Rwanda and
media</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I would urge that those
who get their worldview from the likes of CNN look deeper before pointing
fingers at "third world countries" when clarion calls of trampled
democracy start blaring. People would better serve democracy (and in this case,
media freedom, freedom of information) if they paid more attention at what the
FCC in the US
is allowing the networks to get away with. Because like it or not (barring now
a EU with muscle to set its own course) whatever gets done in the
US tends to
ripple out across the world. The problem is that it hapens in small doses, but
continuously, never enough to cause the alarm bells to go off. At any rate,
civil society's stake is being chiselled away at, and the arbiter is not doing
its job.<br>
<br>
The real dangers to democracy is whether or not Venezuela renews a TV licence,
but when the government that claims to be the superpower and world policeman
tramples on Geneva conventions and tortues men and women in Guantanamo, miles
away from the government they have for decades called a tyranny, while in Iraq
they outdid Saddam's brutality at Abu Graib.<br>
<br>
[]s<br>
<br>
Rui<br>
<br>
*PS lack of time a while back prevented me form finishing a log piece I was
penning together on CNN as nothing but an extension of the
US vision of
the world. It no longer has the same agenda as the CNN that we saw reporting
from the Baghdad Hotel when the first Bush went after Saddam. But there are
people on this list far better informed then me on the issue, so who know they
might want to post something on it. Otherwise, subscibe to the likes of Kevin
Tagland's BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.benton.org/">http://www.benton.org </a>and
Timothy Karr's FreePress.org (I think Timothy has hust left, but <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.FreePress.org">www.FreePress.org</a> is still there.
Alternatively, you might want to amuse yourself with google looking up things
like "CIA interference in Latin Ameria"/ Brazil /
Venezuela /
you name it. "Council on Foreign Relations" etc etc. </span></font></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="gmailquote"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On 04/10/2007, <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Carlos
Afonso</span></b> <<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:ca@rits.org.br">
ca@rits.org.br</a> > wrote:</span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dr Müller's remark misses the point regarding Chavez on two counts: the
<br>
first is rightly pointed out by David -- the elites (with the near<br>
exclusive privilege of disseminating their views through the big media)<br>
do not like that others keep telling them they are in power for<br>
centuries and have been making sure that there continues to be just a <br>
few well-off and a smashing majority of very poor in Latin
America . If<br>
there is a success story of the elites in LA, this is it.<br>
<br>
The second is that Chavez did not take away the licence. It expired and<br>
the government has the prerrogative to renew it or not. Terms of the <br>
contract say explicitly the incumbent network will not engage in<br>
demoralizing a constitutionally elected government (this and similar<br>
restrictions were not created by Chavez, they are part of nearly all<br>
radio and TV concessions in democratic countries). The renewal referred <br>
to the open air TV licence only, but the same conservative media group<br>
continues to operate through cable TV (which is fine for them, the ones<br>
who have cable TV in Venezuela are the ones who generally support the <br>
opposition, the upper classes who are mostly opposed to Chavez, so they<br>
are happily talking to each other). If Chavez were really bound to do<br>
what the Murdoch gang keeps telling us, he would just block the group's <br>
access to cable TV as well.<br>
<br>
We are here right now in a similar process in
Brazil , but the outcome<br>
will quite probably be different. The Globo/Slim media group has several<br>
radio and TV channel licences expiring or expired (as do most of the <br>
other big private networks), and civil society organizations are<br>
mobilized to open up discussion regarding renewal of hundreds of these<br>
public concessions. Frequency spectrum is an asset of the commons and<br>
the State is its guardian on behalf of the people, so there is a need to <br>
discuss whether the current incumbents deserve renewal -- strictly<br>
speaking, most do not, as they have violated on many counts the terms of<br>
their concession contracts for proper use of an asset of the commons. A <br>
lot similar with the private appropriation for profit of the Internet<br>
critical resources we will be discussing in Rio .<br>
<br>
Another point is that Chavez did not do a coup d'état, American style<br>
(meaning Somozas, Pinochets and the sort) -- to the contrary, the
USA <br>
stimulated a coup d'état against him which failed miserably in a few<br>
days. He did all he did (with imperfections, mistakes and whatever,<br>
please point us to a regime anywhere in the developing world which is <br>
perfect...) within the legal political system of the country. Sorry for<br>
the elitist opposition if he won, but he won through elections and<br>
plebiscites. The rest is the anti-Chavez political campaigning through<br>
Murdoch's networks and their kin. BTW, a similar process is now going on <br>
in Ecuador ,
with the economist Correa at the head, legally elected in a<br>
constitutional democracy. I wonder what the big international media<br>
corporations will be telling us all about him? Very soon there will be <br>
no Correa's government, but "Correa's regime" etc etc...<br>
<br>
[]s fraternos<br>
<br>
--c.a.<br>
<br>
David Goldstein wrote:<br>
> Milton said "Look at how Hugo Chavez
is using media licensing rules <br>
> in Venezuela
."<br>
><br>
> I find this a bit rich. The media in
Venezuela has oppressed the poor<br>
> for decades, and when someone stands up to the media, who represent<br>
> the upper classes, they are branded as being censorious. Obviously it <br>
> would be better if Chavez did not take away the licence for the TV<br>
> station it would be better. But then,
Venezuela has been a tool of<br>
> the rich to exploit the poor for a long time.<br>
><br>
> I agree with the rest of his points though. <br>
><br>
> David<br>
><br>
><br>
> ----- Original Message ---- From: Milton L
Mueller <<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:mueller@syr.edu">mueller@syr.edu
</a>><br>
> To: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:governance@lists.cpsr.org">governance@lists.cpsr.org
</a>; <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:KovenRonald@aol.com">KovenRonald@aol.com</a>
Cc:<br>
> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:Embench@aol.com">Embench@aol.com</a> Sent:
Thursday, 4 October, 2007 5:35:04 AM Subject:<br>
> [governance] Rwanda
and media <br>
><br>
><br>
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> I agree with Rony. And I would ask advocates of media restrictions<br>
> whether they believe that the existence of government rules <br>
> regulating the media in Rwanda
would have prevented the genocide. Who<br>
> would have promulgated, monitored and enforced those rules in
Rwanda<br>
> ? Which ethnic faction? Which independent judges? When the state is <br>
> nothing but an armed gang, and all disputes are settled by force, the<br>
> idea that the media can be regulated to enforce civility is<br>
> self-evidently nonsensical. In those cases, media regulations simply <br>
> become another tool for the dominant party to oppress the others.<br>
> Look at how Hugo Chavez is using media licensing rules in
Venezuela .<br>
><br>
><br>
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> <br>
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> From: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:KovenRonald@aol.com">KovenRonald@aol.com
</a>[mailto:<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:KovenRonald@aol.com">KovenRonald@aol.com
</a>]<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> RMC was in fact a weapon in a civil war, and it would have been<br>
> justified to bomb it out of existence if it could have been found.<br>
><br>
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> <br>
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> No virus found in this outgoing message.<br>
><br>
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.<br>
><br>
> Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.13.39/1044 - Release Date:<br>
> 10/2/2007 11:10 AM<br>
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<br>
--<br>
<br>
Carlos A. Afonso <br>
Rio Brasil<br>
***************************************************************<br>
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<br>
-- <br>
________________________________________________<br>
<br>
<br>
Rui Correia<br>
Advocacy, Human Rights, Media and Language Consultant<br>
2 Cutten St<br>
Horison <br>
Roodepoort-Johannesburg , <br>
South Africa<br>
Tel/ Fax (+27-11) 766-4336<br>
Cell (+27) (0) 84-498-6838 </span></font></p>
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