Latin America: On teleSUR’s Coverage of Libya Uprising · Global Voices
Julián Ortega Martínez

Latin American news channel teleSUR, backed by the Venezuelan government and broadcasting from Caracas, managed earlier this week to send several journalists (including a special correspondent, Jordán Rodríguez) into Tripoli to cover the ongoing uprising in Libya. Nonetheless, its coverage [es], which seems quite different to the one provided by other international news media, has caught the attention of many Latin Americans.
Latin American news channel teleSUR. Image by Flickr user alejandro! (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Unlike the Egyptian protests, when teleSUR mostly relied on the coverage by Al Jazeera English (both outlets have a content deal since 2006) and which were celebrated as a “victory” by the network, teleSUR seemed to have, specially during the early days of their coverage inside Libya, a favourable bias to the country's ruler Muammar Al Gaddafi. Critics of teleSUR have claimed it is a “propaganda tool” for left-wing Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and last week when rumours emerged about Gaddafi having fled to Venezuela, many people were reminded about the close relationship between the two leaders.
Prometeo from Poder5 [es] compares teleSUR coverage of Libya with the one by outlets such as Al Jazeera and the BBC:
La cosa es que a los medios no se les ha permitido filmar todo como quiesieran, solo la televisor del estado funciona lo que se ve por Al Jazeera y otros ha sido por periodistas valientes que se ha infiltrado y por ciudadanos libios que han tomado fotos con su celulares y cámaras para enviarlas fuera.
Curiosamente la Cadena de noticias Tele SUR ha tenido acceso al mismo lugar donde estaban las manifestaciones y reporta que todo está bien
[…]
Yo pregunto, ¿será que los de TeleSUR llegaron a otro país por equivocación? ¿Será que están manipulando la información? ¿Será que hay una agenda de parte del gobierno de Hugo Chávez, el dueño de TeleSUR, para lavarle la cara a su amigo Gaddafi?
There was also some controversy in Argentina [es], when state news agency Télam used teleSUR's coverage to report that “Tripoli is in peace”.
Argentinian Observatorio Marxista de Medios publishes an e-mail [es] sent by a writer working for the local Trotskyist party's weekly newspaper, where he also criticizes teleSUR's coverage of Libya:
Se entiende por qué Telesur, la cadena de noticias con sede en Caracas, tomó de forma muy distinta los acontecimientos sucedidos en Egipto y los que hoy sacuden a Libia. Mientras semanas atrás retransmitía casi a tiempo completo lo que registraba Al Jazira, hablando de la “revolución social triunfante”, hoy apenas informa sobre lo que pasa en Libia, dando un trato especial al gobierno de Gadafi e incluso diciendo que “prosigue la tensión en Libia con protestas a favor y en contra del presidente”. Pero no pueden transmitir mucho, ya que cualquier información más o menos seria que tienen que dar desde allí habla de la brutal, sanguinaria y letal represión que Gadafi descarga sobre la población Libia.
But Ález Arango, from far-left blog Utopia la palabra, defends teleSUR [es] and criticizes Welsh philosopher (and supporter of Hugo Chávez) Alan Woods‘ stance on the Libya crisis:
Telesur cuenta con un equipo periodístico en el corazón de Trípoli. Se trata de un medio de comunicación alternativo que informa de manera objetiva acerca de los sucesos que tienen lugar en el Norte de África.
[…] Quiero manifestar que los informes del señor Alan Woods están basados exclusivamente en informaciones provenientes de los medios de prensa occidentales procapitalistas incluyendo Al Jazeera […] Hacer eco a las informaciones de las agencias de prensa occidentales y tomarlas como la verdad revelada implica la enorme probabilidad de incurrir en falsos juicios de interpretación aacerca de la realidad y hacerse parte del coro que encabeza occidente cuyo propósito es el de ocupar Libia y posicionarse en ese territorio para ganar espacio y poder confrontar desde allí el auge revolucionario de los pueblos árabes.
Anti-Chávez satire blog El chigüire bipolar mocks teleSUR [es] with a post titled: “teleSUR reports that Libya looks ‘completely normal’ from Google Earth.”
Twitter has not escaped from the controversy. Alonso Moleiro (@amoleiro), a journalist in Caracas, states:
El e[]pisodio de Libia es la muerte defin[it]iva de la credibilidad de Telesur.
Santiago B. (@santib_), also from Caracas, wonders:
¿Será que Telesur no se pilló al propio embajador de Libia ante la ONU llorando por la matanza de miles de sus compatriotas?.
@elojocondientes tweets from Argentina:
TeleSur está haciendo una cobertura espectacular. te recomiendo que sigas el programa Dossier de W Mrtinez. Impecable. #Libia
Venezuelan Twitter user Abi (@AbiG90) says:
Me gustaria saber que piensa ahora el conductor de Dossier y telesur con todas las pruebas que hay en video de lo que acontece en Libia
Carlos R. (@komunikt) writes from Caracas:
segun Telesur lo que ocurre en #libia es una riña entre vecinos que no trasciende mas alla de la callecita donde hubo los manotazos.
@radiomachaca jokes:
Telesur Informa:Queman mansion de Gadaffi en Lybia pero trankilos esa es un vieja Tradicion Para demostrarle su amor a el Lider
Al Giordano from NarcoNews posted a long critique of teleSUR, calling it a “flop” and claiming that the network “has treated its viewers to a total cover-up and whitewashed version of events in Libya. It has served as a clownish propaganda vehicle for the embattled Libyan dictator.” His post has received many comments, and a few days later, Giordano published a comment where he reveals that there is an ongoing controversy inside teleSUR:
It may also be of interest to our readers that the reporter, Reed Lindsay [sent by teleSUR to western Libya], is a 2003 graduate of the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism, and we have received information from other TeleSur journalists that there is a strong debate within that news organization at present over its coverage of Libya, perhaps unprecedented in the network's six years in that journalists within the channel – the workers of the station – have strongly objected to the simulation and dishonesty that plagued TeleSur's Libya coverage up until now. As with the larger Bolivarian revolution, there are many, many people of conscience who see human rights and resistance as higher priorities than geopolitical alliances, so things have taken an interesting turn, to say the least. Let's hope to see more of it.
On Friday it was reported that a teleSUR crew was arrested [es], despite being inside a diplomatic Venezuelan vehicle; Mr Rodríguez's cellphone was seized (where he had recorded some footage in Tripoli), and he and his cameraman Jesús Romero were beaten by a group of policemen. On Saturday, Rodríguez tweeted [es] that foreign news media reporters will stay at Tripoli's Hotel Roxes.