TeleSUR: 'El' Jazeera 'Television of the South'?

international | arts and media | other press

Sunday July 17, 2005 16:28

by redjade

communication to become a two way street

''The network is to be jointly owned and funded by many countries: at first, Venezuela (51%), Argentina (20%), Cuba (19%), and Uruguay (10%), with other countries joining later. These countries as well as Brazil will collaborate on content and technology.'''

Above: VOA Satellite Footprints - TeleSUR a counter-hegemonic threat?

TeleSUR: 'El' Jazeera 'Television of the South'?

TeleSUR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telesur
'Proposed by Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela, it is meant as a counterweight to popular privately-run networks in South America like CNN and Univision. It is also intended as a spur toward South American integration. The network is to be jointly owned and funded by many countries: at first, Venezuela (51%), Argentina (20%), Cuba (19%), and Uruguay (10%), with other countries joining later. These countries as well as Brazil will collaborate on content and technology.'

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Telesur: "The Airwaves Are Falling!"
By Al Giordano
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/7/17/9548/56987
Telesur, the Latin America-wide TV station that is scheduled to begin broadcasting on July 24 with start-up funds from the governments of Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Cuba, is already worrying the anti-democracy crowd in the region....

That the media magnate Ravell doesn't want competition for his discredited TV network Globovision is understandable: oligarchs have grown soft and accustomed to being protected from competition. Despite their ideological rhetoric, they don't know how to compete in a widened free market of speech and ideas. But that Human Rights Watch's Jose Vivanco [ http://foreign.senate.gov/testimony/2004/VivancoTestimony040624.pdf ] is now attacking the Telesur network that he has never even seen on the air, in light of his three-year silence about the anti-democracy coup participation by Commercial media barons like Ravell, is yet another nail in the coffin of Human Rights Watch's dwindling credibility in Latin America.

Any authentic human rights advocate would cheer the expansion of free speech as represented by a new and different kind of TV network about to hit the airwaves. In a pluralist and open society, more media voices, not fewer, are desperately needed.

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'El' Jazeera
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21988/

Described by its new director, Aram Aharonian, as South America's "first counter-hegemonic media project," Telesur reportedly has 20 employees but hopes to work its way up to at least 60. The Chavez government has coughed up $2.5 million for the project thus far and is permitting Telesur to operate as an affiliate of Venezuelan state television.

Telesur is painted in populist hues, befitting a World Social Forum keynoter. A kind of Al Jazeera of the South, the commercial-free, state-funded channel will beam news, documentaries and other programming with a uniquely Latin flavor. The network will be boosted by the presence of journalistic heavyweights -- among them, Jorge Enrique Botero, a well-known television producer known for his coverage of FARC rebels.

[....]

An article posted on a Venezuelan government web site refers to Al Jazeera's expansion into South America as "being framed within the Telesur-Al Jazeera project."

A spokesperson for Al Jazeera said he could not confirm that the two networks have signed any deals between them but said it is possible that the two state-funded enterprises could be cooperating logistically. Kozloff says it is his understanding that Telesur has entered a deal to extend office space to Al Jazeera in Telesur's headquarters.

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The jump from alternative to massive
By: La Jornada
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1388

Aram Aharonian (Uruguayan journalist who will be the general director of this continental channel): “To begin with, Telesur will transmit three repeating eight-hour blocks from a 24-hour satellite channel. The majority of the production will be original. Emphasis will be on the informative: news, opinion programs, and interviews. Also, this will be amplified by audiovisual productions from all over the continent by those who wish to participate.”

Jorge Enrique Botero: (Colombian television producer) "First off, we are inventorying the quality of existing material. Next, we will launch a varied programming schedule that reflects our enormous diversity. In addition to having our own regular staff correspondents (in the United States, Mexico, Bogota, Caracas, Havana, Lima, Buenos Aires, and two in Brazil), we want to have a network of journalistic collaborators. We want to contract independent media that have outstanding editorial lines to be the station’s base of operations in their respective countries. In this way, every day, we will have at the news hour links with principle newspapers giving us a focus on events in Latin America. Also, we aspire to have our own agenda, touching on themes that quickly disappear off the radar of commercial media and that subsequently stop being news. We want to tell the stories from the beginning to the end, without disregard for the urgency of events, but not neglecting other criteria.”

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Official Website
http://www.telesurtv.net