Buenos Aires, July 24 (RIA Novosti, Yuri Nikolayev) - A new Latin American television network, TELESUR, is beginning its regular broadcasts Sunday. It is intended as a counterweight to Western broadcasting giants, such as the BBC and CNN.
TELESUR Executive Director Aram Aharonian said in a RIA interview that Spanish-language broadcasts to Latin American audiences had until now been provided exclusively by foreign media outlets, such as the BBC, CNN, Univision, Televisa, and Globo. He said Latin America's media community doesn't always agree with how U.S. companies broadcasting in Spanish cover the news and that through TELESUR, it will now be able to offer its own perspective, which may or may not coincide with the West's reading of events.
TELESUR is a satellite channel, and will be accessible to viewers in Western Europe and North Africa as well as across the Americas. News programs will take up about 40 percent of its airtime.
TELESUR has been co-founded by Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, and Uruguay. Other countries willing to join the project are most welcome, Aharonian said. TELESUR has already set up bureaus in Columbia, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela, and is about to open more in Argentina, Cuba, Mexico City, and Washington D.C. $10 million will be spent annually to keep the channel going, its chief said.
The launch of the pan-Latin American channel has put additional strain on the relations between Venezuela and the United States. Last week, the Congress passed an amendment allowing the U.S. government to counter TELESUR with its own "accurate and unbiased" news coverage.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reacted by saying that Latin America will respond with "adequate measures," should the White House try to jam TELESUR broadcasts. He made it clear that Venezuela may use Cuba's expertise in jamming hostile radio and television broadcasts from the U.S.
