PAPER The Drum Beat - 21 - COLOMBIA - Communication Trends
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| The Drum Beat - 21 - COLOMBIA - Communication Trends Additional Information and Commentary By Adelaida Trujillo-Caicedo Citurna Producciones en Cine y Video Bogotá, May of 1999 adelaidatrujillo@cable.net.co 2. Colombia: Communication Trends and Context Some broad background information might be helpful to understand the communication trends in Colombia. These are complex and would need much more space for rigorous analysis. Television has always been in the hands of the state and was conceived as a public service - the first broadcast in 1955, making it the second television service in Latin America, after Cuba. Spaces in the spectrum have been traditionally allocated by concession to private companies, but the public interest had always mantained certain key spaces for programming, public service announcements and campaigns. Concessions to private companies facilitated concentration of power, corruption in the allocation of the licenses, as well as weakened the regional voice. The big "fat" prizes are the daily newscasts (six year licensing), always primetime, and the evening telenovela production. Aproximately 98% of the population has access to television, roughly 50%% of the educational institutions have television and recorders, and kids watch an average of two and a half hours of television. A commercial tradition and mediocre production , except for export-quality telenovelas and a few isolated fiction series, set the trend of programming and content (30% of it acquired from the United States) in the two main channels Canal UNO and Canal A. During the last decade, giving in to private interests, the state has lost all its public service slots in these channels, many of them coveted prime time slots. The argument from the government institutions responsible for this has been the fact that a national public service channel exists dedicated to culture and education (Señal Colombia), as well as six (6) public service regional channels which cover the main areas of the territory ( Telepacifico, Teleantioquia, Telecaribe, Telecafé, Teleoriente, Teveandina), and two local city public service channels ( Canal Capital in Bogotá, and Telemedellín in Medellín). However, these channels do not have consistent audiences and little promotion and publicity. This in spite of isolated efforts of good programming and local independent production - including La Franja of the Ministry of Culture, Audiovisuales of the Ministry of Communication, Telepacífico, and recently Telemedellín) The fact that economic private interests drive the behaviour of television [and other mass media] is particularly serious given the recent proliferation of channels, both private and public, local and national. Until a year ago, property of the electromagnetic spectrum was exclusive to the state. During 1998, the first two (2) private national channels were allocated to the major economic groups ( Canal Caracol, owned by the Grupo Bavaria; Canal RCN, owned by the Organización Ardilla Lulle) and one (1) local channel in Bogotá, City TV, to the largest comunications conglomerate in the country, Casa Editorial El Tiempo. During 1999, the licensing for regional Cable TV will be defined, as well as the legislation for alterativve community television channels. The National Television Commission, (Comisión Nacional de Televisión-CNTV), an independent body created three years ago by the Law of Television which the Constitution of 1991 enabled, is an institution whose mandate is to regulate the spectrum and defend and promote television for the public interest. But the influence and interests of the private sector are enormous in its decisions and policies. The CNTV election mechanisms and representativity have been seriously questioned. A further weak point is the lack of organization from the civil society sector, which has no specialized representation in defending the use of television and other mass media for the public interest. A quite similar situation applies to Radio. State owned frequencies have been allocated by concession to private enterprise companies. Radio has always been essential for communication in Colombia: with a rugged topography, large rural populations which thirty years ago did not have access to television antennas or were illiterate to read the newspapers, the radio transistor really did make a change. What is interesting about radio is the fact that the local voices did have a space, even if they were privately owned. The change of ownership towards economic monopolies began more than two decades ago when these groups get together and buy the influential local radio stations (rural , city and regional). The trend has been for the big conglomerates , today mainly the Grupo Bavaria and Organización Ardila Lulle, to 'swallow the small fish'. Radio buy-outs were the beginnning of the big conglomerates' shift towards mass media ownership, which is now at its peak with cable TV, the new private TV channels and gradually the printed press. Radio today reaches practically the totality of the country's population, is still particularly influential in the rural areas, and also moves political opinion strongly amongst the elites with the 24 hour newscast on AM and FM frequencies, directed by the most influential journalists. The printed press has a totally different background, but is also falling into the mass media globalisation whirlpool. Newspapers have always been privately owned and are part of a political necessity of the liberal and conservative families in the regions to have an independent voice. The tradition has been elite, educated, intellectual family-ownership and representation of one of the two main political parties. Regional newspapers include: El Heraldo and El Universal in the Caribbean coast, El País and El Diario de Occidente in Cali, El Colombiano in Medellín, and Vanguardia Liberal in Santander). Tradition had also determined that this 'fourth power' maintained its independence and social responsibility by not getting involved in mass media. These principles began to get broken about a decade ago: the most widely read newspaper, El Tiempo, with a circulation of 600,000 on its Sunday edition, created by the liberal Santos family almost a century ago, are today majority owners of the media conglomerate Casa Editorial El Tiempo. El Espectador, the second newspaper in national circulation, was funded more than a century ago in Medellín, and moved to Bogotá, where it maintained its independence until it could not stand the pressure of ruthless commercialisation and the drugs barons' terrorist attacks. It was sold in 1997 by the Cano family to the Grupo Bavaria, in a highly controversial move which bought into question the independence of the media in Colombia. It is interesting to note is how the printed press maintains more independence in its pages than the mass media. There are isolated efforts to maintain controversy in radio and television, but that is precisely why the attention of the big groups towards the printed press is something to worry about, as much as the move of traditional journalism from printed press to television, multimedia and telecommunications. Despite all efforts to 'democratize' ownership thru the 1991 Constitution, the reality is that private economic and political interests are the driving force behind the most influential mass media in the country. The 'operating' environment for the most influential media in Colombia is rapidly changing. That environment is critical for the future and impact of any communication for social change initiatives and goals. In my opinion, the challenge is to try to strengthen the public service sector in this context with a strong voice from the civil society. Most important, to invite the privately- owned media to participate in investing capital and human resources in a national crusade against violence and for reconciliation using the power of their media. |