Saturday, August 20, 2005

telesur - "latin america's al-jazeera"

The new Pan-Latin American tv Channel Telesur began broadcasting recently to bring news from a Latin American perspective. It is backed by the governments of Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay who say they want it to promote Latin American integration. The driving force has been Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose government has contributed 70 percent of Telesur's financing and owns 51 percent of the channel. The channel's board members include a group of international supporters including the actor Danny Glover, the writer Tariq Ali and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel.

The "Latin American 'Al-Jazeera'" is already ruffling feathers. Before the new channel even started broadcasting, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to call for the US government to broadcast its own channel in the region to counter Telesur's influence.

That's sort of a disturbing thought. The image just flashed in my mind of a more tan version of Tom Cruise, only with a Latin accent saying "I want the truth!" while a US congressman with an uncanny resemblance to Jack Nicholson replies "You can't handle the truth!".

Telesur's Website
BBC News story about Telesur
Democracy Now! story about Telesur (includes excerpt from interview with Telesur's president)

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