News channel to fight Venezuela tax demand

CARACAS, Venezuela, June 7 (UPI) -- An attorney for Venezuela's Globovision television news channel says a bill for back taxes from the government would be appealed.

The Venezuelan tax agency, Seniat, has sent Globovision a demand for 5.73 million Bolivars ($2.73 million) for what is says were payments owed for commercials it had run during a 2002-2003 general strike.

Globovision attorney Ana Cristina Nunez said the commercial time was donated to non-government organizations so they could get information out to the public during the strike, and that the network, which has gained a reputation for its criticism and skepticism of President Hugo Chavez's government, would fight the demand note.

According to Sunday's Latin American Herald Tribune, the tax bill came down the pike in the immediate wake of last Thursday's raid by the National Guard on a suburban Caracas home belonging to Globovision President Guillermo Zuloga. The reasons for the raid remained unclear Sunday, but the Herald Tribune said a number of hunting trophies had been seized.