VHeadline News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue reports:  During an interview with Infrastructure Minister, Diosdado Cabello, on his Sunday TV political talk show, former Executive Vice President, Jose Vicente Rangel questioned the Minister's appearance at the National Assembly (AN), which, he comments, had "caused a lot of controversy."

The Minister insisted that he wants to see an end to what President Chavez calls "media landed-estates" or latifundios. Cabello admits that there's polarization over media coverage and accuses media owners in Venezuela of assuming political positions, declaring that the same that has been happening in Honduras occurred during the failed coup d'etat in Venezuela on April 11, 2002.

• The reason why the government wants media sources to update data and hand them in to the communication regulations agency, CONATEL, the Minister states, is to draw up a map of the current media situation and at least, to level the playing field.

The only way to tackle what the Minister calls "dirty war laboratories" in the hands of mainstream media sources is head on.

If the situation is not tackled here, the same disinformation that occurred in Honduras will happen in Venezuela ... if it weren't for Telesur, we would not have been informed of what was really happening in Honduras.

Answering the question that some sectors of the opposition call the Minister's proposals an attack on freedom of expression, Cabello says that to have one radio station is a privilege but to have 40 is an abuse. The radio frequencies are limited, the Minister says and there are 970 stations ... many with with same licensees since 20-30 years. That situation has to change, he says, and if any media owner does not sunbmit updated information to CONATEL, they will be sanctioned and the license withdrawn. "What they are defending is not freedom of expression but their freedom to negotiate ... CONATEL will deal with the licensees, not third or fourth parties."

When asked to describe what the government means by media landed-estates, Cabello replied that 27 families own more than 31% of the available radio frequencies and they are economic groups linked to political groups that have made CONATEL their cash cow for years The other aspect is that the licenses have become hereditary and personalized.

Rangel then queried whether a "public media landed-estate" will be set up instead, to which the Minister replied that the State owns less than 10% of stations ... there are a number of different fronts such as youth, cultural, indigenous and armed force stations which are not 'dirty war laboratories' destroying a person or an institution.

• The Minister admitted that he wishes that there would be real media hegemony in Venezuela adding that there will be opportunity for 200 more stations.

The Chamber of Radio Diffusion is preparing a report to send to the US State Department, Rangel pointed out, and stands to lose 40% of its me