By Ingrid Bachmann
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez upped his verbal attacks against opposition television station Globovisión, and reiterated that the government could confiscate the channel's stock in order to recuperate the money he alleges the station owners stole, reported El Universal and the Associated Press.
According to EFE, Chávez also called one of the station's shareholders, Nelson Mezerhane, a "thief," and called for a law that would prohibit bankers from also owning media companies. Mezerhane is owner of Banco Federal, which was taken over by the state.
“We have to see how much Globovisión is worth,” said Chávez, quoted in El Nacional. The station “is one of the businesses where we have to intervene to try to compensate the depositors for all the money these people took," he warned.
The Venezuelan opposition rejected the president's warnings, calling them the latest threat to freedom of expression and information, according to another article from EFE.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
