Venezuela Launches Hemispheric "Anti-Hegemonic" Media

[chlamor]

Venezuela Launches Hemispheric "Anti-Hegemonic" Media

Thursday, Apr 28, 2005

In Venezuela, the war for the hearts and minds of its citizens is now in full swing. With the imminent launching of the government-sponsored Televisora del Sur (Telesur), network control of the country’s existing media, including Univisión and CNN en Español, might sorely be put to the test. According to plans, the network will start transmitting in late June or early July and will offer news and opinion programming 24 hours a day. For journalists now being recruited by Telesur, the creation of the network is long overdue. “Telesur's reason for being is the need to see Latin America with Latin American eyes,” said Aram Aharonian, its new director. “It's our right to have our own vision of what happens in Latin America, and not what Europeans or Americans, or whoever, tell us about how we are, who we are.”

It is hardly surprising that this new project is being launched by the Hugo Chávez administration. The Venezuelan leader has been particularly concerned with increasing his country’s political and cultural independence from Washington. From the very start, Chávez has had a stormy relationship with his powerful northern neighbor. Chávez, who immediately upon taking office in 1998 established close-working ties with Washington’s anathema, Cuban President Fidel Castro, criticized the U.S-led plan for a free trade zone in the Americas and was strongly opposed to the war in Iraq. As a result, he has long been reviled by the Bush administration. Tensions have been particularly bristling between the two nations ever since April 2002 when the democratically-elected Chávez was briefly removed from power in a coup. Chávez accused Washington of sponsoring his attempted overthrow as well as supporting a devastating oil lockout in 2002-2003. He also bluntly referred to the United States as “an imperialist power” and accused the CIA of having plans to assassinate him. In a further barb, Chávez declared that if he were killed the United States could “forget Venezuelan oil.”

<snip>

Media and the Coup of 2002
During the dramatic days leading up to the April 2002 coup d’etat, Venevisión, RCTV, Globovisión and Televen substituted their regular programming with non-stop vitriolic anti-Chávez propaganda, which some of their staff later acknowledged as unprofessional behavior.

<snip>

Financing Telesur
So far, the Venezuelan government state has contributed $2.5 million to the network. Organizers have sought out sponsors, but in sharp contrast to Cisneros’ Univisión, Telesur will offer no commercial advertising. Although, adds Aharonian, “there will be advertisements from private and public institutions, with such sponsors having nothing to do with the editorial line.” Significantly, Argentina has joined the effort and today Telesur represents a joint venture involving Venezuela and Argentina. Additionally, Telesur has concluded an agreement to share material with TV Brasil, a state run company. Uruguay, which recently elected left-leaning president Tabaré Vasquez, has agreed to cover 10 percent of the new enterprises’ initial costs.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1432

[peacetalksforall]

1. I'm happy for them...they don't have to be little satellite countries to

big Sam. Especially when one views what is happening to the citizens of our country.

We are becoming slaves and serfs to the corporation-banking-military-intelligence-media-religious-pnac/fed soc cabal and whose number 1 & 2 buddies are Israel-Sharon and the House of Saud, plus their number #3 buddy - the U.K., plus plus our debt owners - China and Saudi Arabia.

[Selatius]

2. They should run it like the BBC

The BBC is a government corporation financed by taxpayer dollars; however, the government itself has no direct editorial control over it, as far as I know.