March 27, 2005
Network to be regional CNN look-alike
CARACAS - (AP) -- Loose computer cables, laptops and a video camera fill a cramped hotel room where journalists are laying the groundwork for a new television network that they say will be Latin America's alternative to CNN.
With financial backing from Venezuela's government, the Telesur network is scheduled to begin transmitting by satellite 24 hours a day within three or four months, offering news and opinion shows from a decidedly South American perspective.
''Telesur's reason for being is the need to see Latin America with Latin American eyes,'' director Aram Aharonian said on Friday while taking a short break from his work planning new programs and hiring new staff.
''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,'' said Aharonian, a 59-year-old Uruguayan who has worked for years as a print journalist.
The idea has long been discussed across Latin America and is now receiving a boost from governments like Venezuela that are concerned with increasing their countries' cultural independence.
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