Venezuela cuts CNN, BBC coverage
May 1, 2019
By Chris Forrester
Venezuela’s struggling President Nicholas Maduro has banned distribution of CNN from the nation’s cable and DTH networks. The BBC’s news channel has also been removed.
DirecTV, Net Uno, Intercable and Telefonica have all be ordered to remove the news channels via the local telecoms regulator Conatel.
CNN, in a web-statement, said: “CNN has been taken off the air in Venezuela by the government.”
DirecTV, Net Uno, Intercable, and Telefónica all received orders from Venezuela’s government regulator Conatel to block CNN. CNN en Español was blocked in Venezuela in 2017.
CNN obtained a video that appears to show the exact moment it was taken off the air by the Venezuela government. Comparing CNN’s recording of its broadcast to the viewer’s recording, it appears CNN’s signal was cut around 11:44am local time.
That means CNN was taken off the air about one minute after it broadcast a live feed showing Venezuelan military vehicles running over protesters outside the La Carlota military base in Caracas.
Once the signal was cut, a message appeared, in Spanish, on the screen that read: “Programme not available due to restrictions from the channel provider,” and then directed viewers to a website.