Six TV stations forced off air in Venezuela

An opposition TV station in Venezuela along with five others were taken off the air early yesterday for violating rules issued by President Hugo Chavez's government, a station spokesman said.

The new rules require stations to air Mr Chavez's speeches, among other mandates.

A spokesman for opposition channel RCTV, Gladys Zapiain, said all Venezuelan cable television providers dropped the station and the other channels from their line-ups.

"We have just been taken off the air," said Ms Zapiain. "There was no prior notification."

Mario Seijas, president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Cable Television, said that in addition to RCTV, the dropped channels include Ritmo Son, Momentum, America TV, American Network and TV Chile.

The providers argued that they had failed to comply with a government regulation issued in December, Ms Zapiain said.

Under the measure, every television or radio station whose programming is at least 30 per cent Venezuelan-made is considered a "national" media outlet.

As such, they are obligated to carry speeches by the President and other officials, as well as official government announcements.

Mr Chavez critics view many of those speeches, which can last for hours, as government propaganda.

On Saturday, RCTV failed to comply with the regulation for a second time.

That day, Mr Chavez addressed thousands of followers in western Caracas, demanding "absolute loyalty" and telling them he embodied the heart and soul of the Venezuelan people.

"I am not an individual, I am the people," Mr Chavez told a crowd of supporters. "It's my duty to demand respect for the people.

The President asked for voters to renew the ruling party's control of both National Assembly houses in upcoming elections in order to be able to "continue building our new socialist state."

Venezuela will hold crucial legislative elections in September, in which Mr Chavez hopes to secure at least two thirds of seats to maintain his current legislative majority.

According to opinion polls, the President's popularity, which approached 60 per cent approval at the beginning of 2009, stands now at less than 50 per cent.

Mr Chavez, a vocal critic of US influence in the region, has been in power since 1999.

The largest oil producer in South America, Venezuela slipped into a recession in 2009 for the first time in six years due to a drop in oil prices and production.

Amid the economic downturn, Venezuela recently devalued its currency.

The bolivar devaluation was the first since 2005, and was designed in part to bolster public finances that have withered amid dwindling oil revenues and a rapidly contracting economy.