Marcel Granier and his television network have been accused of supporting the April 11, 2002 coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez, the brief government of Pedro Carmona Estanga, and the general strike that began on December 2, 2002 and lasted until February 4, 2003. These events resulted in the government's refusal to renew RCTV's license to air on the public airwaves. Granier claims that this license did not need renewing and that this was an "illegal shutdown" by the government. Upon the shutdown, Chavez claimed RCTV would be punished for criticizing the government, specifically for being "bourgeois" and for "coup plotting." Granier and the other directors at the network fight for its return to the public airwaves. Human rights groups have decried the shutdown, with Thor Halvorssen of the Human Rights Foundation calling the shut down "the final move in his (Chavez') drive to shut down all independent voices."