As things heat up in Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro kicked CNN International off airwaves throughout the country. DirecTV, Net Uno, Intercable and Telefónica were all told to block the cable network.
The decision was made amid an uprise in opposition protests taking place throughout the country.
Breaking news: @CNN has been taken off the air in Venezuela by the Maduro government as we cover violent clashes in Caracas. DirecTV, Net Uno, Intercable, and Telefónica all received orders from Venezuela’s government regulator Conatel to block CNN.
— Javi Morgado (@javimorgado) April 30, 2019
CNN's English website posted an update about what took place:
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 11:44 a.m. 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, "Program not available due to restrictions from the channel provider," and then directed viewers to a website.
This is what appeared on TV:
Momento exacto cuando el gobierno dictador saca del aire a CNN (en inglés) de la parrilla de programación por cable (canal 706) y censura aún más con Conatel.
— Jhomar Lóp[e]z (@JhomarLopez) April 30, 2019
¿Alguno tiene duda de que la libertad de expresión no existe en Venezuela? pic.twitter.com/WR0XReOWNW
The Venezuela Press Freedom group said the BBC was also taken off air earlier in the day.
Maduro's people also shut down Radio Caracas Radio, a local radio station in Venezuela's capital. The country’s telecommunications commission, CONATEL, told the radio station to quit broadcasting the uprise taking place, the Daily Caller reported.