Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Press Freedom

CHILE: Media Pluralism Loses Another Voice

Daniela Estrada

SANTIAGO, Jun 19 2006 (IPS) - The loss of the 18-month-old Diario Siete, considered a progressive alternative within the increasingly homogenous Chilean print media, was less than a surprise, becoming one more entry on a long list of publications that have stopped circulating since democracy was restored to Chile 16 years ago.

According to company management, Diario Siete suffered major losses in 2005, and was planning on injecting more capital this year. But a strike launched May 18 by 40 workers strained the paper to the breaking point, according to Genaro Arriagada, chairman of the board of directors.

The paper’s journalists, photographers, graphic designers and administrative staff were demanding improved working conditions, salary adjustments, overtime pay and meal subsidies.

The work stoppage aggravated the publication’s already shaky economic situation, and as a result the presses stopped on a newspaper that reported a national circulation of 10,000 copies.

One cause of the paper’s economic woes was the skewed placement of the dollars public institutions and state enterprises allot to advertising each year.

Diario Siete traced its origins back to a magazine called Siete más Siete, which was founded in 2002 and saw its readership expand quickly, attracted by in-depth investigative pieces on national and international issues.

The magazine was owned by a group of people linked to the centre-left ‘Concertación’ (Coalition) of Parties for Democracy, which has governed this Latin American country since the dictatorship fell in 1990. Arriagada himself was government minister during the presidency of Eduardo Frei (1994-2000).

The magazine’s success soon caught the attention of newspaper chain Consorcio Periodístico S.A. (Copesa), which purchased half of the shares to create Diario Siete. Copesa publishes the dailies La Tercera and La Cuarta, the weekly Qué Pasa magazine, and the free newspaper La Hora, and owns radio Zero and the public TV channel ABT.

The tabloid, whose issues ran an average of 30 pages, had a progressive editorial slant, with ample coverage of political and human rights issues, particularly those affecting workers.

“I’m sorry the Diario Siete folded, because even though it did not have many different sections, it tried to cover the news from a different angle, to look at the facts a different way,” journalist Madeleine Cáceres told IPS.

Under Mónica González as editor-in-chief, the paper called itself independent and free of any political, economic or religious bias, although in practice it was considered to favour the Coalition government.

Copesa and the El Mercurio company, which owns the national newspapers El Mercurio, Las Últimas Noticias and La Segunda, form a slightly right-leaning print media duopoly.

According to a study conducted by media watchdog Observatorio de Medios Fucatel, state bodies, which account for four percent of the country’s advertising revenue, allocate funds to TV spots (49 percent), print media (33 percent) and roadside ads (15 percent).

The biggest chunk of the pot – 48 percent – goes to El Mercurio, followed by Copesa (29 percent), the free Publimetro daily (12 percent), and the state-owned daily La Nación (nine percent).

“This study shows that the state’s advertising-investment strategy is completely arbitrary. They don’t consider relevant criteria. The percentage spent on El Mercurio, for example, is completely out of proportion to the paper’s circulation and sales,” Fucatel president Marcelo Contreras told IPS.

This assessment spurred members of the governing coalition, drawn to the issue because of the strike at Diario Siete, to commit to forming a congressional investigative committee to look into the matter.

But the striking workers said that when they approached the government, they were given the cold shoulder: President Michelle Bachelet did not respond to the letter they sent, nor did she agree to a meeting. The affront was all the more galling, considering that the campaign that brought her to power this year included a stop at the Journalist’s Association, where she criticised the way state bodies dole out shares of their advertising-budget pie.

Contreras said Chile has yet to see serious debate on media pluralism, particularly in terms of the state’s role. In his view, governments should guarantee diversity by providing subsidies and soft credits to new media, in addition to restructuring government advertising distribution.

“The current feeling is against state intervention, but neither broadcast nor print media represent the country’s diversity, ignoring workers, indigenous groups and sexual minorities,” argued Contreras.

Agreeing with him is journalist Francisco Martorell, director of the El Periodista magazine, one of the few alternative media that has been able to keep its toe-hold in the market.

“An equitable distribution of the state’s advertising pie would help, but that is not enough. For example, we could follow the lead of countries like France and Italy, which subsidise media through their first years, which are traditionally the toughest,” he suggested.

Martorell warned that even under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), the most important consortia received economic support, receiving loans of 160 million dollars – debts that were virtually wiped clean when the first democratic government, led by Patricio Aylwin (1990-1994), came to power.

The journalist does not buy the commonly-held conclusion that publications flop because they do not have what it takes to attract readers, because the underlying problems can often be traced to advertising levels.

However, Diario Siete has been criticised for its weak coverage of sports and entertainment, generally favourites of daily-news readers.

The public also has to step up to defend media pluralism “by supporting independent publications, buying them, passing them around and mentioning them in surveys,” said Martorell.

Since the return to democracy, emblematic media publications that were critical of the dictatorship have disappeared, such as the magazines Apsi and Cauce and the dailies Fortín Mapocho and La Época. The daily El Metropolitano and magazines Página Abierta and Los Tiempos, which emerged after 1990, met the same fate.

Last year, the weekly Plan B, founded by a group of young journalists, and Rocinante, considered “the best cultural magazine” by the Chilean art critics association, also went under.