Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, added, ?We renounce the fact that he seeks to punish the television network because of its editorial stance. Likewise, we are concerned that the government will turn around and award this license to some other news outlet or person that will do its bidding. Both matters are equally reprehensible and at the end of the day if there are no watchdogs over abuses in government action the public will be stripped of its right to know.?

Chávez said that the RCTV license is due to expire in two months? time and he has already signed a non-renewal order to take effect in March 2007. Executives at the network, however, maintain that the license has longer to run. On previous occasions Chávez has also threatened not to renew the license of the Globovisión television station.

The IAPA has repeatedly denounced the Venezuelan government for increasingly bearing down on independent news media in the country and criticized it for taking judicial and administrative actions against them in retaliation for their opposition to his administration.

In this regard the hemisphere free-press organization reaffirmed its call for governments to respect press freedom and freedom of expression as values fundamental in a democracy and stressed the need to observe Article 7 of the IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec, which states, ?Tariff and exchange policies, licenses for the importation of paper or news-gathering equipment, the assigning of radio and television frequencies and the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists.?