People take part in a march against opposition television channel RCTV in Caracas yesterday. Supporters of Chavez marched on Wednesday to back his decision to not renew the licence of RCTV when it expires on May 27. - REuters

CARACAS (Reuters):

Venezuela's RCTV television station had viewers roaring with a spoof of leftist President Hugo Chavez after he misspelled a word while promoting a nationwide literacy campaign four years ago.

Within months, the government passed anti-defamation laws that forced the station's slapstick comedy show Radio Rochela, which had ribbed presidents for more than 40 years, to drop its impressions of his folksy idiosyncrasies.

Now, Chavez plans to have the last laugh: RCTV goes off the air on Sunday night.

Assault on press freedom

Opponents say the government's refusal to renew the station's licence is an assault on press freedom and further proof the former soldier's self-styled socialist revolution is centralising power and trying to crush opposition.

"Chavez is going to silence the people who support him, he is going to silence the people who are against him," said Berenice Gomez, a 30-year veteran reporter, at a tearful gathering of RCTV staff this week.

"The only voice that is going to be left will be his."

Chavez, a staunch ally of communist Cuba, says RCTV is losing its licence for supporting a failed 2002 coup, inciting anti-government demonstrations, and showing risqué soap operas that he calls immoral.

He has also slammed it for pejorative representations of the country's poor majority that helped him win a landslide reelection in December, and he is preparing to replace it with a government-backed public service channel.

"There will be no concession for a coup-supporting channel called RCTV," Chavez told a military audience in December.

INTIMIDATION

Chavez already has firm control over Venezuela's Congress, courts and crucial oil sector. Critics say the RCTV move will leave no national television stations opposed to the government and will intimidate other media to muzzle their criticism.

RCTV began broadcasts in 1953, and is the country's oldest private broadcaster.

The decision has drawn sharp criticism abroad and caused an outcry in Venezuela, where seven in 10 oppose the decision, according to a leading pollster.