Latin American television station Telesur, backed by the Venezuelan government, has signed a cooperation deal with pan-Arab network Al-Jazeera. Under the accord, the two networks will share content as well as journalistic and technical expertise.
Telesur was created in October 2005 as a project of ‘media integration’ involving various Latin American countries; the Venezuelan government holds 51 per cent of the capital, Argentina 20 per cent, Cuba 19 per cent and Uruguay 10 per cent.
Telesur president Andres Izarra has said the network aims to provide a Latin American news service as a counterweight to the major international television networks, in particular CNN and the US channels. Speaking in Doha, Izarra said his channel felt inspired by the way Al-Jazeera had become a reference point for the Arab world. The managers of the Latin American network aim to reach 10m viewers by 2006 from its current audience of 2m.