Telesur Breaks Through Media Dictatorship in Honduras

7-01-09, 12:25 pm



HAVANA, Cuba, July 1 (acn) The work carried out by multinational television network Telesur during the preparation and development of the coup in Honduras has broken through the media dictatorship and silence the military and oligarchies that took part in the coup have tried to impose.

This opinion is shared today by many politicians and TV viewers all over the world, even during the events, where the signal was jammed in order to prevent the people from knowing what is happening.

The network’s coverage has followed the events step by step, including a reconstruction of the kidnapping of President Zelaya from the presidential residence and the popular protests, as well as the repression by the Army forces.

In comparison to this, CNN en Español resumed its live broadcasts from Tegucigalpa on Tuesday afternoon with a rally supporting the military’s repressive actions in the Central American nation and the coup government led by Roberto Micheletti.

The CNN correspondent to the Honduran capital insisted that the demonstrators want people to say that “it was not a coup but a replacement of a president ordered by the State’s main bodies.”

Afterwards, the journalist reiterated that it was “a pacific rally, cheerful and that their position coincides with that of many viewers that want the world to know that many Hondurans support what happened in their country.”

In addition, the US network broadcast manipulated images of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

While at the same time in another small screen they were showing the live broadcasting of the rally of those supporting the coup in front of the Honduran Presidential Palace.

The camera repeatedly took posters repudiating the democratically elected Honduran President and those asking CNN to tell the world that is was not a coup and what was happening was to defend democracy.

The same simultaneous image treatment was given by this network to the introduction and approval of a resolution condemning those involved in the coup in Tegucigalpa, in which is known as juxtaposition, though evidently taking sides.

This US network, which broadcasts mainly to Latin America, had only slightly talked about what was happening in Honduras over the phone and the latest images had been the swearing-in ceremony of Micheletti in Congress.

The protests of those demanding the return of Zelaya to the presidency were ignored by CNN. During her phone updates on Sunday and Monday, the CNN correspondent minimized these protests describing them as “small groups supporting Mel.”

Another fact is that CNN abruptly took President Barcak Obama off the air, when the American leader, before answering a question by a reporter, gave priority to what happened in Honduras and the coup d'état against Zelaya, reported Venezuelan ABN agency.

The local press is tightly gagged by the coupists and offers a distorted view of the facts, with a favourable balance to the elite that usurped power in Honduras, according to several local sources cited by news agencies.

Media outlets that didn’t bend were closed; there are reports of missing journalists and aggressions, including the one against the Telesur team, headed by reporter Adriana Sivori, who were arrested but firmly confronted the military, forcing them to release them in short time.

From the Cuban News Agency