Telesur made its way to the air of Latin America
July 25, 2005
Big role in «pushing through» of the regional TV project was played, without a doubt, by the President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez. His voice was heard in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Cuba. The doors to Telesur are also open for other Latin American states, which are interested in “free informational space” that is not controlled by the radio-electronic air monopolies.
Until recently, it was just like that: the Latin Americans were fed by thoroughly filtered news by TV channels of the USA and Western Europe. Paradoxically, but the Latin Americans used to learn about the events in neighboring states just like that – through the intermediate parties with a foreign accent, and frequently – through the ideological and political censorship of these TV channels owners.
And so, the signal of Telesur appeared in the air and during the coming weeks its broadcasting will come up to 8 hours. A chain of press centers from Buenos Aires to New York started their work. Talented journalists, film reporters, writers, musicians moved one after another to Telesur with their proposals of cooperation.
The new channel caused irritation in the United States even at the stage of preparation. The House of Representatives of the Congress adopted an amendment that allowed broadcasting radio and TV programs to the territory of Venezuela – in contrast to the Telesur broadcasting. One of the initiators of this amendment (it is yet to be ratified by the Senate) has clearly stated that the United States must “curb the anti-American rhetoric”.
Confrontational nature of this amendment is evident – Telesur has not yet uttered a single word by that time!
Vice-minister of foreign office of Venezuela for North America M. Hernandez has stated in this respect, that still there is a hope that there is a common sense in the US Senate in respect of “counter-broadcasting” to Venezuela. After all, according to her, there are 48 TV channels with open for reception signal in the country, out of which only 2 are federal and 5 are openly oppositional. 120 foreign TV channels can be received in Venezuela, where a good few are American ones.
Minister of information of Venezuela and channel president A. Izarra, Telesur General Director A. Aharonian, poet from Nicaragua E.Cardenal, historian and journalist from France I. Ramonet, American actor and human rights activist D. Glover and many others from different countries of the world participated in the inauguration ceremony of Telesur.
In the course of the first program the President of Venezuela made a call to the studio. Hugo Chavez wished the TV channel a successful informational and educational work for the benefit of all peoples of the continent.