Venezuelan students set up blackboard for free speech
|
| Published on Monday, July 16, 2007 |
Email To Friend Print Version |
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP): Hundreds of students set up a sprawling, 450-yard blackboard in Caracas Saturday for people to write what they feel, as part of a protest over the government shutdown of a popular television station.
"Chavez, take your doctrine and go to Cuba," read one message referring to leftist President Hugo Chavez, whose closure of RCTV on May 28 sparked the first major student demonstrations the country had seen in 20 years.
"A Blackboard for Venezuela," as the project is called, has been organized by Liliana Tintori, a teacher and program host of RCTV and Union Radio.
Set up in the middle-class neighborhood of Chacao, the phrase most frequently seen on the green slate boards is "freedom of expression."
Reminiscent of the dazibaos (big character posters) that appeared in China in the 1960s, the blackboard in Caracas invites citizens to express their opinions about the government or anything else in public without having to give their names.
"I want a country that respects the ideas of everybody, even if they are different," read an awkward scrawling on another corner of the blackboard.
Tintori told AFP that students critical of the government do not want to be tagged as members of the opposition simply because they think differently than the current administration.
She said the students have prepared a new list of demands to give the president, the National Assembly and the Organization of American States. They include freedom of expression, autonomy for universities and improvements in civil rights.
"I want to choose my future education. I don't want another Cuba," read another message on the Blackboard.
RCTV had Venezuela's largest viewership and was the only station with nationwide reach that openly opposed Chavez, who refused to renew its license when it expired on May 28 after 53 years on the air.
The station closure became a lightning rod for Chavez's many opponents inside and outside Venezuela.
RCTV's former frequency has been reassigned to TVes, a public broadcaster, which Chavez has called part of his socialist program.
Since its closing, RCTV has shown its spicy soap operas and hit game show, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" on giant screens in public plazas around Caracas.
On July 16, however, RCTV will resurface as subscription television on cable.
On announcing the move, RCTV director general Marcel Granier said last week that RCTV would continue to fight for the right to broadcast openly "so that we can reach all of the Venezuelan population without charging anyone." |
|
