[Marxism] At last, Telesur

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Most of the peoples of Latin America have been until now far too 
dependent on media from the north and primarily from the US and its 
Spanish-speaking clones. With Telesur, the process of continental 
integration takes a giant step forward. The peoples of the region, 
and via the internet the peoples of the planet, can begin to find 
a new and superior source of information. This is going to help to 
build and new consciousness among its viewers. Viva Telesur!)
===================================================================

GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
Havana. August 10, 2005

At last, Telesur
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/agosto/juev11/33telesur.html

I have just returned from Caracas where, on July 24 ? the anniversary
of the birth of Simón Bolívar ? I participated as a member of its
Advisory Council in the launch of Telesur, the new channel that
aspires to propose a Latin American point of view in the labyrinth of
the global television spectrum. For those of us who long for an
independent Latin America in cultural and media terms as well as
political and economic ones, the launch of Telesur (www.telesurtv.net) 
signifies the materialization of a long-cherished dream of 
informational sovereignty.

It has been made possible thanks to the initiative of President Hugo
Chávez . Four countries ? Venezuela (51%), Argentina (20%), Cuba
(19%) and Uruguay (10%) ? have provided the capital for the
multi-state entity, and Brazil is expected to join the project. The
leaders of these countries are aware of the need for a media that
makes it possible to disseminate to the region?s inhabitants their
values, divulge their image, discuss their ideas with total freedom
and transmit their contents.

Latin America did not have any indigenous channel of continental
reach. The only ones picked up are the versions for a Latin American
audience emitted by the large U.S. networks (CNN en español, Fox
News, ESPN, NBS). Thus the scandalous case of an entire continent
consuming an image of itself produced outside the sphere of its
imagination. And, to cap it all, diffused from the United States,
which has been trying to dominate this region for more than one
century.

One of the founding ideas is that Telesur can create bridges among
the people of the continent. As one of the channel?s documents says:
"To see each other is to know each other, to know each other is to
respect each other, to respect each other is to learn to love each
other, and to love each other is the first step to integrating. If
integration is the proposition, Telesur is the means."

Some people are already comparing Telesur (which can be received in
Spain, via the New Skies Satellite NSS 806) with Al Jazeera , the
Arab news channel broadcasting from Qatar, which has changed the
perception of news on the Middle East. Connie Mack, the Republican
congressman for Florida, has dared to qualify Telesur as "a threat to
the United States" because, according to him, "it is attempting to
undermine the balance of power in the Western Hemisphere." And the
House of Representatives in Washington went straight ahead and passed
an amendment last July 20 authorizing the government to initiate
radio and television broadcasts that would offer Venezuelans a
precise, objective and complete news source, thus demonstrating an
unprecedented colonial arrogance and an astronomical ignorance of
Venezuela?s media situation. A situation dominated, as known, by
certain omnipotent private conglomerates, the regular accomplices of
Washington, and which did not hesitate to foment a coup d?état
against democracy and President Chávez on April 11, 2002. In the face
of so much abuse, Telesur is the response. It constitutes the first
serious attempt at audiovisual liberation and media decolonization.
At last.



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