BUENOS AIRES, July 25 (RIA Novosti, Igor Nikolayev) - The Latin American TELESUR news TV channel started broadcasting Sunday as a "counterweight" to CNN and BBC.
"The launch of the channel is tremendously important to the integration of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced at the official opening ceremony in Caracas.
The president said the channel was politically independent and determined its own information policy.
Venezuelan Communications and Information Minister Andres Izarra said that in contrast with the existing global and neo-liberal information monopoly, TELESUR provides an opportunity to prevent the destruction of Latin American culture and civilization.
Izarra said the Latin American TV channel would eliminate the 50-year-old monopoly of the United States on the propaganda of colonialism and imperialist culture.
TELESUR general director, the well-known Uruguayan journalist Aram Aronyan, told a news conference that TELESUR "will end the domination of foreign media in the region."
"Our main task is to present our viewers with a different point of view that might not coincide with the one disseminated by foreign media," Aronyan said.
The head of TELESUR said that for the first time Latin Americans could look at themselves through their own eyes.
Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, and Cuba jointly founded the new global TV network.
Viewers in Argentina, Venezuela, Columbia, Uruguay and Brazil were able to watch the first TELESUR broadcast on Sunday.
The launch of the channel led to a further deterioration in U.S.-Venezuelan relations. The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment Wednesday allowing the U.S. government to counter the TELESUR broadcast "with clear and objective information." In response, Chavez warned the U.S. that his country would take "appropriate measures" if Washington interfered with the broadcast.
Chavez said Venezuela might copy Cuba by jamming U.S. radio and television broadcasts.
