CARACAS, Venezuela Venezuela's oldest private television station was pushed off the air as President Hugo Chavez's government replaced the popular opposition-aligned network on Monday with a new state-funded channel.
Radio Caracas Television shut down just before midnight Sunday as its broadcast license expired. Chavez refused to renew its license, accusing the channel of "subversive" activities.
The new channel, TVES, launched its transmissions with artists singing pro-Chavez music, then carried an exercise program and a talk show, interspersed with government ads proclaiming, "Now Venezuela belongs to everyone."
Crowds of students took to the streets in Caracas to protest the move on Monday, saying they fear for the future of free speech.
"We're defending our right to think differently from the government," said Angelitz Yanez, 20, who joined several hundred students protesting at the Andres Bello Catholic University.
Thousands of government supporters reveled in the streets earlier as they watched the changeover on large TV screens, seeing RCTV's signal go black and then be replaced by a TVES logo.
Others launched fireworks and danced to the classic salsa tune "Todo tiene su final" "Everything Has Its End."
In the countdown to the midnight deadline, thousands of RCTV backers banged pots in protest and played recordings of sirens. Some fired gunshots into the air.
Earlier Sunday, police broke up an opposition protest using a water cannon and tear gas and later clashed with protesters who set afire trash heaps in affluent eastern Caracas. Police said some protesters fired shots, and others threw rocks and bottles. Police said 11 officers were injured.
Inside the studios of RCTV the sole opposition-aligned TV station with nationwide reach disheartened actors and comedians wept and embraced in the final minutes on the air.
They bowed their heads in prayer, and presenter Nelson Bustamante declared: "Long live Venezuela! We will return soon."
Chavez says he is democratizing the airwaves by turning the network's signal over to public use.
Germany, which holds the European Union presidency, expressed concern that Venezuela let RCTV's license expire "without holding an open competition for the successor license." It said the EU expects that Venezuela will uphold freedom of speech and "support pluralism."
Founded in 1953, RCTV had broadcast talk shows, sports, soap operas and a popular comedy program that poked fun at presidents including Chavez for decades. It had some 3,000 employees.
RCTV was regularly the top channel in viewer ratings, but Chavez accused the network of violating broadcast laws and "poisoning" Venezuelans with programming that promoted capitalism.
The government promises TVES will be more diverse, buying 70 percent of its content from independent Venezuelan producers. It will carry sports, news and an educational program for children emphasizing socialist values, as well as foreign-made programs such as National Geographic documentaries.
"We've come here to start a new television with the true face of the people, the face that was hidden, the face that they didn't allow us to show," said Roman Chalbaud, a pro-Chavez filmmaker appointed by the government to TVES' board of directors.
TVES received US$4 million (euro3 million) in startup funds from the government, but officials say it also may seek commercial advertising.
Troops were dispatched to RCTV's transmitters two days before the changeover to guard them during the transition, RCTV operations manager Edgardo Mosca said.
Chavez, who says he is steering Venezuela toward socialism, accuses RCTV of supporting a short-lived 2002 coup. RCTV's journalists argue violent demonstrations staged by Chavez's supporters outside the station's studios prevented them from covering the news at the time.
RCTV's shutdown leaves 24-hour Globovision news channel as the only other major opposition-sided station, and it is not seen in all parts of the country. Other channels once critical of Chavez have toned down their coverage.
