Will+truth+go+south+on+Telesur+news

=Will truth go south on Telesur news? =


 * By Gary Marx Tribune foreign correspondent**


 * Sun Jul 17, 9:40 AM ET **

There were no cameras in place, no anchors and no frenzied producers pushing to make deadline.

But Aram Aharonian said everything was on schedule as he toured the partly completed headquarters of a new satellite television station that sees itself as an alternative to CNN, Fox News and European news organizations.

"This is a dream, a dream of a lot of people," Aharonian, the station's general director, shouted above the din of construction workers' hammering and drilling.

Late this month, Telesur--short for Television of the South--will begin broadcasting 24 hours a day across Latin America. While the network's goal is nothing short of changing the way Latin Americans view themselves and their news, critics say the station could become a propaganda tool for the region's re-emerging left.

A pugnacious, pony-tailed journalist, Aharonian argues that U.S. and other mass media provide a superficial and distorted view of Latin America.

He said the cameras show up only to cover disasters and beam images across the region and the world that display ignorance of the continent's complex realities. It is time, he contends, for Latin Americans to determine what is news and how it is reported.

"Why do we have to continue seeing ourselves through the eyes of others?" asked Aharonian, a 59-year-old Uruguayan who has lived in Caracas since 1986. "Now we are going to begin seeing ourselves through our own eyes."

Instead of fluffy reports about American pop stars or news pieces on distant lands, Telesur plans to focus its lens closer to home, broadcasting weighty documentaries on subjects ranging from the struggle for indigenous rights in Bolivia to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest.

One Telesur program will promote tango, vallenato and other Latin sounds while another regular segment will profile groundbreaking Latin Americans. "Nojolivud," a program whose name is derived from a phonetic Spanish spelling of "No Hollywood," will showcase films made outside what Telesur executives call "the Hollywood system."

But Telesur's news programs are sure to garner the greatest scrutiny.

Although Telesur is a venture involving leftist governments in Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay, its main benefactor is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a populist who derisively refers to the U.S. as "The Empire" and blames capitalism for the region's endemic poverty.

Critics fear Chavez will use Telesur to project his ideas across Latin America at a time when some media executives and human-rights experts say Chavez has curbed free speech in his own country.

"Can you imagine Telesur criticizing Mr. Chavez?" asked Alberto Federico Ravell, executive director of Globovision, a local 24-hour news channel highly critical of the president. "Chavez wants to become the leader of Latin America, and this is a project to support him."


 * Causes for concern**

Ravell and other critics point to a number of what they see as ominous signs. For starters, Telesur's headquarters is on the same grounds as Venezuela's Channel 8, a state-run television station that flatters Chavez. Telesur's president is Andres Izarra, a veteran journalist who also is minister of communication and information in the Chavez government.

Then there is the issue of Cuba, a part owner of Telesur that is providing the station technical support.

"If the shareholders of this company belong to a government like Cuba where they have no basic concept of free speech and zero tolerance for independent views, God help us," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch. Jorge Botero, a veteran Colombian television producer and Telesur's news director, acknowledged that Cuba doesn't practice "my ideal of journalism." He also said he admired Chavez, whom he described as a "great leader."

"But I am not affiliated with his movement," Botero said. "I am an independent journalist."

Aharonian said Telesur will have complete editorial independence from any government and that its only agenda is furthering Latin American unity. Everything else is fair game. "If the programming is bad and full of propaganda, then no one is going to watch it," said Aharonian, who has worked for United Press International, the Mexican newspaper Excelsior and Prensa Latina, the Cuban state news agency.

"The only censor is the viewer. They can just click and change the channel," he said. Some dispute the notion that Latin America is getting its television news only from outsiders.

Caroline Rittenberry, a spokeswoman for CNN en Espanol, a 24-hour Spanish-language news channel reaching more than 15 million households in the Americas, said the network covers the region in a comprehensive and sophisticated way.

"We totally reject the notion that just because we are based in the U.S. we present a U.S. perspective of the news," said Rittenberry. "The overwhelming majority of editorial staff is from Latin America. We have correspondents in every country."

The intense debate over a television network that has yet to go on the air reflects a broader ideological battle over the future of Latin America. But the new network also is part of a global struggle over how news is disseminated.

The Internet is challenging the mainstream media's grip on information in the United States, with bloggers across the political spectrum assailing what they see as bias in newspapers and on broadcast networks.

In the Arab world, the satellite news channel Al Jazeera has been criticized by U.S. officials who complain that it gives viewers an inaccurate version of events in the Middle East. Al Jazeera officials say they're merely reporting the truth from an Arab perspective.

John Dinges, associate professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, said he did not expect Telesur to toe the middle line. But he said that did not mean the new network was without merit.

"Generally in Latin America, the fact that a station has a political point of view does not rule them out of the club of good journalism," Dinges said. "I would love to see a successful television channel with hard-hitting journalism about Latin America."


 * Chicago contributors**

With a first-year budget of about $10 million, Telesur is opening bureaus in six Latin American countries and Washington and also will air material from freelancers in Chicago and across the hemisphere.

So far, the only glimpse of what Telesur might offer is an 11-minute video aired in May during a signal test. The video shows street demonstrations by peasants and images of leftist heroes such as former Chilean socialist President Salvador Allende, killed in a U.S.-backed coup in 1973. Telesur's look will be different from the high gloss of American network television. One anchor, Ati Kiwa, is an indigenous Colombian who will appear on camera in her tribe's traditional dress.

The key to Telesur's success is not going head-to-head against the giants of broadcasting but providing an alternative to them, Aharonian said.

"We are losing this [information] battle because we are not doing anything right now," he said. "We are simply setting up an alternative to the hegemonic communications industry that has one way of thinking and one message." --
 * gmarx@tribune.com