(EFE News Services) - "Venezuelan communications magnate Gustavo Cisneros said that television channels should not be used as instruments to achieve political objectives but rather must be 'impartial and balanced' showcases for policy.

'Many in government and the opposition believe that a television channel can be the main character in the political game. That is not the mission of television,' Cisneros said in an unusual appearance on his Venevision network.

Television channels 'cannot and must not take sides in the national conflict and in fact cannot even try to replace the political parties, if they don't want to worsen the conflict. That is what has happened in Venezuela,' he added.

Cisneros said that he decided to express his point of view about the situation of Venevision in light of the attacks the channel had received for not joining the campaign in favor of its competitor RCTV, whose broadcasting license the government recently declined to renew.

The licenses of both RCTV and Venevision expired on May 27, but President Hugo Chávez' administration granted a five-year renewal only to Cisneros' network. The socialist Head of State said he would not renew RCTV's license because the station openly backed the April 2002 coup that removed Chávez from office for two days before loyal military commanders intervened.

Cisneros, who is one of the wealthiest men in the Americas , said that the role of a television channel is 'to supply information and report news in the most balanced and objective way possible.'

'After the events of April 2002 (the abortive putsch) and the 2004 recall referendum (which Chávez won handily), I became convinced even more that a television channel cannot and must not take the position of being a protagonist in a political conflict, however much it favors or opposes the government,' Cisneros said".