I spent some time at Globovision in Caracas. It is a fearless television station that insists it will defy the newly declared censorship from the Venezuelan government.

This is all fully in character. During the coup attempt of 2002, when Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez tried to break into all the television stations with a speech in order to suppress news of the unrest in the streets, Globovision, being full of real journalists, defiantly created a split screen so that the people of Venezuela could see what was happening at that critical moment in their country. The split screen showed Chavez on one half declaring all was calm and under control, while the angry crowds in the street on the rest of the screen showed a very different picture.

Globovision is a small, professional, fiercely independent news operation that is only concerned with truthfully reporting the news. I think it tops U.S. TV media in almost any standard of professionalism. This station is very popular because it reports relevant news that is central to people’s lives, covering events that are on people’s minds. It does not lack for ads by the way, everyone watches this station because it’s a good source of news information. That’s why it gets ads.

But that’s also why Chavez has been after it.

Chavez’s clown kangaroo courts threw one of the station’s owners in prison over the carbombing of the Venezuelan prosecutor about a year ago, claiming he did it. This is a lie. The media is uncovering this lie.

That’s why the government is censoring the press over exactly this issue, telling Globovision and everyone else – like Tal Cual newspaper (definitely click that link) – that it can’t print anything about this case. It’s naked Stalinist censorship.

Globovision has had grenades thrown into its building. It’s had thugs harassing their reporters – recently, one of the Chavistas began screaming against a Globovision reporter, hurling the vilest of insults, just because she wanted to know how many buildings had been confiscated in the wake of the Viaducto 1 bridge collapse. How many? It was too dangerous to ask.

The government absolutely hates this station. It prints out the nastiest of literature all about how much they hate this station (I kid you not, I have it with me!) and its goons spray the scariest of graffiti in order to intimidate the station. There are actual program trailers showing people firing bullets at Globovision on the Venezuelan government station. That’s the kind of gruelling, brutal pressure this station is under.

AND STILL GLOBOVISION DEFIES THE GOVERNMENT ON ITS MOST BRUTAL CENSORSHIP TO DATE!

Keep an eye on this station, this station is full of heroes for freedom, defying a dictator in the name of democracy. Their declaration stating that they will defy censorship is right here.