Caracas, Venezuela: Venezuelan authorities demanded $800,000 in taxes from a private TV channel for transmitting advertisements critical of President Hugo Chavez during an
Opposition strike three years ago.
The Seniat tax agency yesterday demanded Venevision pay around $804,000 in taxes. It had originally announced the channel would have to pay more than double that amount, but the company appealed the ruling.
Authorities earlier this week said another channel, Televen, would have to pay $182,300 in taxes.
Venevision, Televen and a third station facing a tax bill, RCTV, have called the claims punitive fines intended to dampen criticism of Chavez, a leftist former soldier who often blasts private media for conspiring to oust him.
The anti-Chavez propaganda was broadcast in December 2002 and January 2003 when the Opposition organised a strike seeking to topple the President. But Chavez survived the protest even though the strike temporarily slashed oil output by the world's No. 5 crude exporter.
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Authorities say the free broadcasts were taxable, but media owners argue that the publicity had no commercial value.
Most private television, radio and newspaper companies have opposed Chavez, whom they often paint as an authoritarian cracking down on foes and trying to copy the communism of his ally, Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Chavez, who has promised to use oil revenues to fund projects for the poor, has said he he could shut private channels he accuses of backing radical opposition to his self-styled socialist revolution.
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