South America wakes up to Independent TV News
Move over CNN, Univision and other global giants in Latin American TV screens. Telesur is here, backed by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, whose new continent-wide TV network is about to be aired.

Highlighted Friday by the alternative US media website Alternet.org, in a report by Kelly Hearn, based in Venezuela, Telesur, according to general director Aram Aharonian, is South America´s "first counter-hegemonic media project".

For now, it has 20 employees but hopes to work its way up to at least 60. The Chavez government has put in $2.5 million for the project and is permitting Telesur to operate as an affiliate of Venezuelan state television.

Telesur is painted in populist hues, says Kelly Hearn, befitting a World Social Forum keynoter. A kind of Al Jazeera of the South, the commercial-free, state-funded channel will beam news, documentaries and other programming with a uniquely Latin flavor.

The network will be boosted by the presence of journalistic heavyweights -- among them, Jorge Enrique Botero, a well-known television producer known for his coverage of FARC rebels.

Telesur will compete for hearts and minds of viewers as a number of Latin American nations are leaning politically left, miffed both by Washington"s neglect of the region and U.S.-backed neoliberal economic policies, widely seen as the cause of the devastating recessions of the early 2000s.

For Chavez, Telesur is about more than broadcasting. The continent"s prime lobbyist for hemispheric cooperation as a counterbalance to US power, the democratically-elected Chavez touts Telesur as a high-tech thread for binding regional cultures into a seamless fabric capable of balancing US dominance.

In February, Argentina"s president, Nestor Kirchner, committed to buying up 20 percent of the company"s initial equity stock, providing 100 hours of programming and using its satellites to beam Telesur across its territory.

In Uruguay, one of the first acts of the country"s new Socialist president, Tabare Vasquez, was to commit his nation to 10 percent of Telesur"s start-up costs. And the Venezuelan government says Brazil and Cuba have agreed to share in programming and swap technical training.

As Telesur gets set to launch, the Arab-language news program Al Jazeera, which is funded by oil-rich Qatar, is expanding into Latin America, opening a bureau in Caracas and possibly creating logistical ties with Telesur.

A Venezuelan government web site refers to Al Jazeera"s expansion into South America as "being framed within the Telesur-Al Jazeera project."

Millions in this continent, says Kelly Hearn, believe the real "mind poison" flows through CNN and other vectors for spreading American hegemony.