Venezuelan TV station may move to cable

An opposition-aligned TV station forced off the air by President Hugo Chavez is considering taking its programming to cable, the channel's top executive said.

Radio Caracas Television, which went off the air on May 27 after Chavez refused to renew its license, might seek to reach viewers via cable or satellite, station executive Marcel Granier said Wednesday.

"I hope that this month we have news about coming out through other paths," he said.

Chavez and his supporters accuse RCTV of supporting a failed 2002 coup, violating broadcast laws and regularly showing programs with excessive violence and sexual content. RCTV denies wrongdoing.

Another station highly critical of the government, Globovision, has begun broadcasting some of RCTV's newscasts.

Granier said it is difficult for RCTV to know whether it will be allowed to broadcast on cable in Venezuela, citing what he called "persecution" by the government.

"The government has done everything within its power ... to keep us from going on the air," Granier said.

He said the channel's priority is still to return to viewers as a regular channel on the open airwaves.

Granier also said RCTV will ask prosecutors to investigate the circumstances surrounding a Supreme Court decision that ordered the temporary seizure of the station's transmitting equipment. He has called it state-sanctioned "theft."

The equipment is being used by a new state-funded public service channel that replaced RCTV.

"We know that the absence of the rule of law makes it nearly impossible to receive justice in Venezuela. However, we will make the complaint ... and later take that complaint before international courts," Granier said.

The government did not immediately respond.

Chavez has defended his decision not to renew RCTV's license, calling it a move to democratize the airwaves.