[The Hands Off Venezuela Campaign report on Youtube's decision to close down the account of Venezuelan Bolivarian activist Luigino Bracci. The reason? A complaint over copyright by Spanish Antena 3 TV station. For an account of this news in Spanish click here. --Ed]
Youtube and Antena 3 TV censor Bolivarian videos
By Hands Off Venezuela
June 13, 2007
For the last few weeks we have been subjected to a barrage of propaganda in the media about the so-called "attacks on freedom of expression" in Venezuela. Facts? A TV station, RCTV, which actively participated in the coup against president Chávez in April 2002, did not get its licence renewed.
Acres of print paper have been filled with this story. However, one that you are not likely to see reported is this other story: Yesterday, June 12, Youtube decided to close down the account of Venezuelan Bolivarian activist Luigino Bracci. The reason? A complaint over copyright by Spanish Antena 3 TV station.
Why? A few weeks ago, Antena 3 TV broadcasted a debate about the case of RCTV's licence. In this programme Spanish university professors Luis Alegre Zahonero and Carlos Fernández Liria debated Venezuelan Globovisión journalist Nitu Perez Osuna. They did it so effectively that in the end it was clear to all that Nitu Perez was actually a defender of the April 2002 military coup in Venezuela. Extracts from the programme were broadcasted by two different programmes on Venezuelan state TV channel VTV, "La Hojilla" and "Dando Dando". Then, Bolivarian media activist Luigino Bracci took them from VTV and uploaded the videos on Youtube. These were then reproduced on a whole number of left wing and revolutionary web sites. The site was the most seen Youtube video in Spanish that day.
This was too much for the "democratic" opposition in Venezuela and their "freedom of expression" loving friends abroad. They could not allow a Globovision journalist and the RCTV case to be exposed for what they really are. So, Antena 3 complained to google, the owner of Youtube, and demanded that the offending videos be removed. Youtube, then proceeded to close down Bracci's whole account (http://www.youtube.com/user/lbracci), which had more than 450 different videos and had received more than 1.4 million visits in the last few weeks over the RCTV affair. So much for democracy and freedom of expression!
The real reason for this action by Antena 3 and Youtube has nothing to do with copyright law. The video uploaded was a clip that had been broadcasted by VTV. If Antena 3 wants to pursue its rights it should do so with VTV. A simple search of Youtube's archive will show that there are plenty of videos taken from Antena 3 available and have been so for some time. One of them is a video of an interview with Marcel Granier, owner of RCTV, by Antena 3 which was then reproduced by Venezuelan TV station Globovision!! No problem with that it seems....
(click here to view entire article)
See also:
Antena 3 and YouTube Censor Debate on Non-Renewal of RCTV License
by Carlos Martínez
What does this have to do with the Venezuelan opposition? Youtube is a private company owned by Google. Are you now suggesting that the Venezuelan opposition controls Google? This is beyond paranoid.
Posted by: Henry | June 18, 2007 at 02:37 PM
Henry, no need to read between the lines, the title of the article is clear enough, "Youtube and Antena 3 TV censor Bolivarian videos", however, to think that Antena3TV which has hundreds of videos on youtube complained about a video in which the Venezuelan opposition was shown in bad light without any pressure from the Venezuelan opposition itself is ... at best naive
Posted by: Jorge | June 21, 2007 at 09:52 AM
Naive is to see behind everything we don't like a conspiracy.
I happened to watch the "censored" program, not on youtube, but the actual screening. What I saw is that both Chávez's champions (the Spaniards Alegre Zahonero and Fernández Liria) just repeated the Venezuelan government's line; while Pérez Osuna and Troconis took the position of most rightwing opposers to the government. Marcel Granier and Iris Varela also participated by phone.
Sadly, neither side was able to limit themselves to the measure, but proceeded to attack one another as coupmongers. Both sides actually ARE coupmongers: Chávez, who led a coup, and Pérez Osuna et al., who welcomed the Carmonada.
Posted by: Henry | June 21, 2007 at 09:35 PM
LUIGINO BRACCI is a communist good 4 you tube!
Posted by: jr | June 24, 2007 at 05:06 PM