Tim Marshall (foreign news editor, Sky News): A question for Nigel from Al Jazeera. When Sky News started in 1989, a lot of people tried to kill it very quickly, and I wondered if you were seeing any pressure from anywhere about getting your carriage on the different satellites, the advertisers and so on. Is there anyone out there that's trying to kill you - to strangle you at birth?

Nigel Parsons (Al Jazeera International): I'm sure there are a lot of people hoping we'll fall flat on our faces, and I don't think we're going to. In terms of satellite distribution, without doubt there are one or two territories where it's more difficult than others. The United States is probably not the easiest, and nor is Australia. They're probably the two hardest markets. Having said that, they are just two countries in the world, and in other places, we're knocking on open doors. I think we'll have very significant audiences in large swathes of the world. Even if you look at North America, hopefully we'll get good carriage in Canada, and if we build an audience up there, that will actually put more pressure on their southern neighbours. As long as we have a significant foothold in the United States, that's something we can build on, I'd be quite happy with that. Plus, of course, you've always got broadband, so we will be visible.

Susan Ormiston: What message do you get in North America when you go looking for carriage? For example, Al Jazeera in Canada faces significant restrictions to getting on the cables there - it's almost unworkable.

Nigel Parsons: With one or two exceptions, it's mostly a commercial issue. Sadly, a lot of cable operators say: “Why should we carry you? You're a news and current affairs channel and Americans aren't interested in foreign news.”

Susan Ormiston: And what do you say?

Nigel Parsons: I always say that the biggest number of visitors to our website, by far, comes from the United States, and they can't all be coming from the Pentagon. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who want to see another side of the story.

Jihad Ballout (corporate communication director, Al Arabiya): It's always a welcome sight, to have diversity, and it's good for viewers. I get a bit concerned when we start talking about a particular point of view setting up a news channel. This is, in a way, the government coming back in through the back door, from a purely Arab perspective.

Commercially, I don't think the proliferation of news channels in the Arab world could be sustained for long. The constant public funding of any particular channel is not healthy, and always gets us back to more censorship. I agree with the gentleman who said necessarily there is going to be a conflict between a news organisation, if it's operated professionally, and the funders. In the Arab world at least, history has taught us that the state can wait for a while, but that at the end of the day it has its higher interests and it will actually stamp out. So this is a cause of concern for me as a professional. At the end of the day, I think that market forces should be able to dictate which one stays and which one falls by the wayside.

Marcus Bonisch (freelance correspondent, Spain): I wanted to ask Aram what he means by a different point of view to put on Telesur. When you've been to South America and you have the luck to see on CNN-Espagnol a speech by Hugo Chavez, you ask yourself: Isn't it already Hugo Chavez TV? So why do they need a special platform to give him even more space? Or what's the problem with the other channels over there?

Aram Aharonian : We have no problem with the other channels. We want to democratise the television spectrum. But if you see all the channels that reach into Latin America, you only see one point of view, with single images and messages from the North. We have no "South" opinion on the television, and this will be the first time there is an alternative to the media hegemony in Latin America.

Why do you only speak about Chavez? Latin America is not only Chavez - he is just one of the presidents of Latin America. The Venezualan government has two state television stations. So Telesur is not Chavez Television; it's the television of several states of Latin America, and has very plural and diverse kind of information from all the countries. If you see Telesur, which you can see streamed on the Internet, you'll see that it's very plural television.

Arnd Henze (WDR, Germany): A question to both Moscow and Caracas about the governing board of your companies: Does it reflect the pluralism and diversity of civil society or are they just sent or nominated by the government?

Aram Aharonian : We have no government control. We have an independent political and editorial form of control, and our board of directors are all professionals from Latin America. We have no problem with saying what we want about what is happening in all the countries, including news that is not very pleasant to the governments.

Margarita Simonyan: The whole discussion seems to have been comments on that. It is independent, absolutely. My two deputies - one used to work for APTV and the other for CNN.

Susan Ormiston: I want to introduce you to two other potential new players. Salim Amin, you're trying to get a channel up and running in Africa. Why?

Salim Amin (Africans Together Vision project): I'm starting off at a disadvantage in that we're nowhere near launching a channel, yet we have an advantage in that nobody else is covering Africa. With the greatest respect to all my friends and colleagues in this room, nobody is actually doing a good job in Africa. There are two Africans in this room, if I'm not mistaken, and that's about the percentage of the coverage that we get on international networks as well. But this is not a criticism of people in this room. They're doing the best they can to the best of their financial abilities. Africans have now come to the conclusion that we have to do this ourselves. We have to get off our ass and do our own channel. Is it possible? I'm not sure. The money is there, the interest is there, the need is definitely there.

We're putting together a forum in December [2005], which is possibly the most influential gathering of African media practitioners, as well as investors, that has ever been held, to put the plan together to do this. The reason for that is simply that we're not getting a fair say anywhere in the world.

Susan Ormiston: Weren't you saying at the break that you were going to ask for a financial commitment from everybody in this room?

Salim Amin: I've got my hat I can pass around. I think that's the least that most of you can do! The point is that it is necessary, and it can't be government-controlled; it can't be owned by any one particular country. Africa is a vast continent, and the channel needs to address all the different aspects of the continent. It can't be controlled by east, west or south - it has to be a united effort, which is what we're trying to do.