Chavez to take control of more radio....

Wow....check out the section on 'media crimes'....

President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that hundreds of radio stations his government plans to seize for allegedly operating illegally could be turned over to Venezuelans who share his socialist vision.

"We are going to retake control of the radio waves," Chavez told a crowd of supporters.

Chavez said his government isn't planning to take control of radio frequencies "to give them to the bourgeoisie" -- a term he frequently uses to refer to his political adversaries. "A popular radio in the hands of the people must be created," he said.

The leftist leader has endorsed a move to revoke the licenses of 240 radio stations -- about 40 percent of the country's stations -- after officials said they didn't update their registrations with the telecommunications commission.

Tensions between Chavez and Venezuela's privately owned media are on the rise.

Officials have launched investigations that could lead to the closure of Globovision, an opposition-aligned television station that is the last over-the-air TV broadcaster strongly critical of Chavez's policies. The government has also endorsed plans for a proposed law that would punish as-yet-unspecified "media crimes."