
Nursing a sore throat, which doctors reportedly asked him to rest by not speaking too much, (Sunday's program lasted a mere five hours), the president told his red-clad audience that the media war is a daily conflict. "I beg you to stand up to this battle, all of you," he implored his followers.Chavez frequently criticizes opposition-aligned television stations and newspapers, at times holding up copies of the papers during public addresses to ridicule articles that criticize him.Alberto Federico Ravell, director of Globovisión, a TV channel that is critical of Chávez, said he was concerned about the future of free speech in Venezuela."When a president talks of a map such as this, it's nothing less than a means to attack anyone who is against him," Ravell said. "Independent media is the only window that the Venezuelan people have to see what is really happening in the country."During Chavez's recent victorious campaign to remove term limits for elected officials, a report by a media watchdog group found that over 93 percent of coverage on the state news channel, Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), was in favor of the constitutional amendment.
By Patrick Walker
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As in the days of Noah...