Venezuela ? Venezuela’s Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge by an opposition-aligned television station seeking to remain on the air despite the government’s decision not to renew its license.

In a decision announced late Thursday, the court declared inadmissible the challenge by Radio Caracas Television and its top executive Marcel Granier. The ruling is a setback for RCTV, a channel critical of President Hugo Chavez that is due to go off the air at midnight May 27 when the government says its license expires.

The channel and its supporters argue Chavez is trying to silence criticism, while the government says it will be replaced by a public-service station and that freedom of expression is being respected.

On Friday, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro warned that Venezuela’s leftist government would not tolerate any outside interference in its decision.

Chavez announced in December that the government would not renew the station’s license, accusing it of supporting a failed 2002 coup against him.