The International Association of Broadcasting (IAB) asked President Hugo Chávez Tuesday to reconsider his decision not to renew the broadcasting license for private TV channel Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV).

IAB requested Chávez "with due respect" to reconsider the move, to favor the exercise of freedom of expression in Venezuela.

According to a communiqué released in Montevideo, the seat of the IAB Secretariat that represents over 17,000 private radio stations and TV channels of the Americas, Europe and Asia, "the Venezuelan government is entrusted with management of the radio-electrical spectrum, which is the humankind's cultural heritage."

However, "it should be consistent with the audience's right to tune in the station of their choice and with the journalists' right to exercise freedom of information and give an opinion without any limitations or restrictions."