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02/10/13 -  Associated Press - Telesur news channel gives Cubans glimpse of world 

By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ |


HAVANA (AP) - There have been some strange sights on Cuban TV sets
recently.

News-starved viewers watched an Ecuadorean opposition candidate liken the
government of President Rafael Correa, one of Havana's staunchest allies,
to a moonwalking Michael Jackson: He walks like he's moving ahead, but he's
actually going backward.

On another day Cubans learned a quarter-billion of their fellow Latin
Americans have access to the Internet - something less than 10 percent of
islanders can say themselves.

Cubans even watched a live broadcast of U.S. President Barack Obama's
inaugural address.

Such images would be unremarkable in most countries, but they're a break
from the stodgy, tightly scripted state-run television that has long been
the only fare in Cuba, with its mind-numbing tributes to efficiency,
constant diatribes against the U.S. economic embargo and remembrances of
minor anniversaries from the early years of the 1959 revolution.

The change has come not from U.S.-funded TV Marti, which few Cubans can
see, but via the left-leaning Latin American news channel Telesur, which is
bankrolled primarily by Venezuela. Since Jan. 20, it has broadcast live
about 12 hours a day in Cuba.

Telesur's outlook may be sympathetic to Cuba's socialist model, but it's
still a relatively unfiltered news source, and many say the decision to
carry it here is as groundbreaking as other recent reforms, such as
legalizing more private businesses and allowing greater travel freedom.

"It's a window onto the world. It's a different way of seeing things," said
Marcos Guizaldivar, a 41-year-old restaurant worker in Havana who said he
was fascinated by Telesur and had all but tuned out Cuban state TV. "It
would be great if they had it on 24 hours a day."

Guizaldivar and many others are captivated by Telesur's global
newsgathering, fresh, real-time reports and slick production values, all
novelties for an audience accustomed to low-budget weather graphics and
word-for-word readings of lengthy essays by retired President Fidel Castro.

Even Telesur's critics welcome its arrival on the island.

"I think it is a positive step in Cuba, where all media are controlled by
the Communist Party," said Carlos Lauria, senior Americas program director
for the New York-based Committee to Project Journalists, a media advocacy
group.

But he noted that Telesur is unlikely to report on internal issues that
reflect poorly on Havana's government, such as Cuba's tiny dissident
community or problems with the country's crumbling housing.

It's "limited, because there is no different or critical vision where
dissent is expressed," Lauria said.

Telesur was conceived as a force for regional integration and as a
counterweight to Western channels such as CNN and BBC. It began
broadcasting in 2005 and receives majority funding from Venezuela, with the
governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua contributing
lesser shares.

All those countries are run by leaders considered part of the Latin
American left, most notably Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and critics of the
channel point to examples of ideologically driven coverage, such as its
pro-regime reports during the Libyan uprising against Moammar Gadhafi.

Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuba-born economist and University of Denver lecturer,
said that no matter the editorial line, competition with private channels
across the region means that Telesur doesn't have the luxury of ignoring
major events.

A speech by a U.S. president, for example, was almost unheard of on Cuban
TV in recent decades.

Telesur's programming gives islanders a close-up look at the more modern,
messy, consumer-driven world outside.

One recent commercial urged viewers to use a smartphone app to follow
Ecuador's elections - something that's prohibitively expensive for most
Cubans.

On a recent evening, Telesur covered a Venezuelan congressional session in
which opposition lawmakers stridently defended themselves from critics
across the aisle.  That was an unusual image for Cuba, where parliament
generally passes legislation unanimously, with discussion but without
visible debate.

"The population will be exposed to a political model that distinguishes
loyal opposition from treason ... that does not imply uncritical
acceptance," Lopez-Levy said.

Telesur carries musical and historical programs, as well as documentaries
with investigative journalism and reporters grilling their subjects. That,
too, is a significant departure from the softball questions typical of
Cuban news and the echo-chamber analysis of the nightly TV public affairs
show.

And once baseball season begins, Cubans will watch highlights by Aroldis
Chapman, Yoenis Cespedes and other Cuban stars whose names disappeared from
official media after their defection, even as fans continue to pass news of
their exploits in Major League Baseball by word of mouth.

"Telesur is something completely novel for us," said Felipa Martinez, a
68-year-old retired government office worker. "What's also valuable is that
you can stay current on international events."

As with the recent law making it easier for Cubans to travel abroad, the
government apparently is betting that familiarity with the outside world
won't make people pushier about demanding political change or material
goods.

"Putting Telesur (on air) is a challenge that the government has accepted,"
analyst and former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray told The Associated
Press in Havana.

Telesur broadcasts every day in Cuba from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and again from 8
p.m. until it goes dark sometime after midnight. Cuba has carried the
channel before, but only for two hours a day and with a delay that
presumably let it avoid any objectionable content.

It's practically the only media available to most Cubans that's not
filtered through the government. All newspapers and airwaves are
state-controlled and carry the same dry content. Internet access is not
widely available in Cuba, and foreign magazines and newspapers are
nonexistent. U.S. government-funded Radio Marti and TV Marti broadcasts
beamed at the island are mostly jammed by Cuba, and reception is spotty at
best.

Some Cubans have had some increasing access to outside media in recent
years. Hundreds of camouflaged, illegal dishes on rooftops capture
satellite channels from Florida. Workers at hotels and foreign businesses
can glimpse a cable service that offers foreign programming in Spanish,
English, a handful of other European tongues and even Chinese.

Purveyors of pirated DVDs with the latest Hollywood movies and seasons of
"CSI" are not only tolerated but licensed and regulated. Reruns of
"Desperate Housewives" have become a mainstay on the open airwaves.

President Raul Castro has urged Cuban journalists to elevate the quality
and creativity of their reporting, though there have been few examples of
any newfound independence as yet.

Alzugaray, the former diplomat, said Telesur could provide an example for
local reporters and their Communist Party-conscious bosses and help them
shed the long-held mentality that it's risky to be too inquisitive.

"It's a different model of journalism, a model that many of us are
demanding from Cuban journalism," he said. "It's a way of saying, 'Well, we
can have revolutionary politics and still have discussion and diversity.'"
___

Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP