FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2003 file photo, an employee at Globovision, a 24-hour television news channel, works behind a glass reading "News" with Globovision's logo "G" at the channel's headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela. Employees of the last remaining opposition television channel in Venezuela said on March 11, 2013 that it is being sold to a businessman friendly to the government. The employees said the sale would occur after April 14 elections, which Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor is favored to win. (AP Photo/Leslie Mazoch, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2003 file photo, an employee at Globovision, a 24-hour television news channel, works behind a glass reading "News" with Globovision's logo "G" at the channel's headquarters in Caracas, Venezuela. Employees of the last remaining opposition television channel in Venezuela said on March 11, 2013 that it is being sold to a businessman friendly to the government. The employees said the sale would occur after April 14 elections, which Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor is favored to win. (AP Photo/Leslie Mazoch, File)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? The only remaining pro-opposition television channel in Venezuela, Globovision, is being sold to an insurance company owner friendly with the government, employees told The Associated Press on Monday.
They said its editorial line is sure to change and that many journalists sobbed when informed of the sale, certain some would lose their jobs.
The sale will occur after April 14 elections, which Hugo Chavez's hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro is highly favored to win, they said.
International human rights and press freedom groups have accused Chavez and his political heirs of trying to strangle Globovision financially by inventing alleged transgressions. Under constant state pressure, it has been forced to pay millions of dollars in fines.
The state telecommunications agency has repeatedly sanctioned the channel and threatened to shut it down. It was accused in one instance of running allegedly incendiary reports on a 2011 prison riot. In another case, it was accused of sowing panic for running spots challenging the constitutionality of the government's decision to postpone the swearing in of Chavez, supposed to have occurred Jan. 10, due the cancer that ultimately killed him.
Globovision President Guillermo Zuloaga informed staff at a meeting Monday, naming the buyer as Juan Domingo Cordero, president of the insurance company La Vitalicia, the employees said. The company had no immediate comment but said it would issue a statement later in the day.
The Zuloaga family owns 80 percent of Globovision. The other 20 percent belonged to a banker but was expropriated years ago by Chavez.
The employee said Cordero is friendly with government officials such as National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job.
In the meeting with employees, Zuloaga said that "politically, economically and legally" Globovision was no longer a viable business and had no access to dollars at preferential rates to buy equipment, as Cordero's business does.
The employee said the buyers had presented themselves as politically neutral.
"A lot of journalists were crying and surely more than one of them will have to go," the official said.
Zuloaga had been living outside of Venezuela since 2010 after a court ordered his arrest for allegedly illegally storing 24 automobiles at one of his homes.
It became the lone opposition channel in that year after RCTV was forced off cable and satellite networks.
Four private channels exist in Venezuela, all ostensibly neutral, while the government has four state-run channels and the regional news network Telesur. In print, two major national newspapers, El Nacional and El Universal, remain highly critical of the government.
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