US warnings and threats to Telesur

BY ANTONIO MAIRA, (Taken from Insurgente)

IT’S only just begun. Telesur, a television project initiated by Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina and Cuba, which intends to do away with CNN’s virtual monopoly of the Americas as a source of news and opinions and as a continental, Spanish-language network, has unleashed the fury of the empire.

This new Latin American channel made its first test broadcasts on Tuesday, May 24. Just a few hours later, Richard Lugard, chair of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had already begun the game of warnings and threats, probably soon to be joined by its loyal ally: the European Union.

The U.S. is not at all happy about independence for the countries of Latin America. And that is what this is about: "For the first time, we Latin Americans are going to see ourselves with our own eyes, and make ourselves seen as we are before the world" is how Uruguayan Aram Aharonian, the network’s director, has stated it in various interviews. He also notes, very precisely, that Telesur may be defined as "the first anti-hegemony project on a mass scale in Latin America." The diffusion of Latin American and indigenous cultures is another fundamental element.

Any Latin American project – not including the to date servile OAS – is immediately eliminated by the U.S. Much more so when it comes to something that intends to establish a network of information via satellite, preferably dedicated to "news, documentaries, investigative reports and films, especially on Latin America," as Jorge Botero, Telesur’s news director, has explained. Telesur is a television station with its own sources that seeks to compete with Latin networks broadcast from the U.S., like CNN En Español.

The Latin American disinformation media, in defense of the oligarchies that it represents, is using the private media of Venezuela as a launch pad against the project. They have an elaborate and experienced discourse.

Regarding discourse, first they fought tooth and nail against the constitutional determination of the human right to "truthful information," and later against the Social Responsibility of the Media Law, linking big private property to freedom of information. Now they are affirming that Telesur will only offer the point of view of the governments that have set it in motion, particularly that of Hugo Chávez.

Regarding experience, the Venezuelan media was always directly implicated in the coup d’état and successive attempts to overthrow the democratically elected president of that country. They even put together scripts for the successive coups: on April 11, during the business strike and oil industry sabotage, the "guarimba," by converting them into more or less successful Operation Orders. During the media/military coup of April 2002, a reality was created for the television screens that was completely dislocated from what was going on in the streets.

The issue of threats by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, who affirmed that the network is an "instrument of Chávez’ authoritarian policies," should not be taken lightly. Neither now nor later. There are several precedents very close to the resolution of this type of enmity: it’s enough to remember the bombings of Yugoslavia’s television station and against Al Jazeera.

The Latin American television station raises a fundamental question: "It’s a question of approach," as its directors, Aharonian and Botero, have said. Actually, in recent weeks, many Latin American agencies have expressly introduced the slogan "American approach" instead of the disinformation media news programs’ subliminal motto of "Made in USA" with respect to information regarding the continent.

"It is an approach problem. They see Latin America from over there. We want to see our continent from the perspective of our continent, and we want our cameras to go where theirs never do," affirmed Jorge Botero, who also stated that "the independence that we have is guaranteed by us, those of who are in the project and are willing to fight for that independence."

Telesur will continue to do test broadcasts until mid-July. From then on, it will begin with some programming. In September, it will go on air 24 hours a day, and with complete programming.

Granma Interantional