In Brief

TV station shut CARACAS – Venezuela’s oldest television network went off the air at midnight on Sunday in a move slammed by democracy activists as a fresh push by President Hugo Chavez to tighten his grip over the nation’s media.

RCTV screens went black after the station broadcast previously recorded images of its teary-eyed employees singing the national anthem. The channel’s successor, Chavez-backed TVes, began broadcasting its own programming about 20 minutes later.As 53-year-old RCTV was about to fade into history, network president Marcel Granier told US-based Univision television that Chavez was driven by ‘a megalomaniacal desire to establish a totalitarian dictatorship.”He also told reporters that he was certain that “democracy will return to Venezuela, along with RCTV’.Using water cannon, police dispersed thousands of stone-throwing protesters outside Venezuela’s telecom authority, which ordered the station off the air.Nampa-AFPThe channel’s successor, Chavez-backed TVes, began broadcasting its own programming about 20 minutes later.As 53-year-old RCTV was about to fade into history, network president Marcel Granier told US-based Univision television that Chavez was driven by ‘a megalomaniacal desire to establish a totalitarian dictatorship.”He also told reporters that he was certain that “democracy will return to Venezuela, along with RCTV’.Using water cannon, police dispersed thousands of stone-throwing protesters outside Venezuela’s telecom authority, which ordered the station off the air.Nampa-AFP