 Soon after the film's October 2003 broadcast on BBC Two, Venezuelan filmmaker Wolfgang Schalk began a campaign against The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, representing El Gusano de Luz ("The Worm of Light"), an organization associated with the Venezuelan opposition. In July, Schalk had complained to RTÉ about its broadcast of the film. On 21 October, El Gusano de Luz published a "detailed critique" as part of an internet petition that attracted 11,000 signatories, 85 % of whom self-identified as Venezuelan. Directed at the European broadcasters that financed and aired the film, the petition said in part, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is being presented as an author's film, as an objective journalistic research film, while it is really a very well plotted and accomplished propaganda operation, supported logistically by the Venezuelan government, with the aim of misleading unprepared spectators of countries who do not know the totality of events." The petition submitted 18 specific points of contention with the film. Venezuelan private television soon aired two programs "dissecting and denouncing" the film, and similar newspaper articles followed.
