Settling In 129and traditional paper like The
New York Times or The Times
(London). The other prominent
Santiago newspaper is La
Tercera. This paper has been
conservative in its treatment
of topics like divorce and sex
education. Nevertheless, La
Tercera and another daily, Las
Ultimas Noticias, are colourful
and appeal to the masses. La
Nación is a semi-official paper.
La Segunda comes out in the
afternoon and carries late-
breaking news. It is common to hear the call of hawkers
selling La Segunda in the downtown area in the afternoon.
La Cuarta is a tabloid full of pictures of scantly clad women
and hilariously written news. There are two very important
financial papers, El Diario Financiero and Estrategia. Outside
Santiago, every good-sized town has its own newspaper. Free
newspapers, such as La Hora, are also widely available. There
is a high concentration of media ownership, particularly
printed media. All newspapers have good or excellent free
websites. El Mostrador is an Internet only daily.
News Magazines
There are several news magazines published in Chile. Ercilla
and Qué Pasa tend to sympathise with the right. Cosas and
Caras both provide a peculiar mix of gossip and in-depth
interviews with important people; for example you might
find a story about European royalty next to a great interview
with President Bachelet or the Dalai-Lama.
Foreign Language Media
The Santiago Times, part of CHIP (the Chilean Information
Project) is an English language newspaper that covers issues
important to Chile, including political, business and cultural
topics. Their website is http://www.chipsites.com. Business
News America (http://www.bnamericas.com) provides
Chileans have full access to a
free press. However, at times, it
has been subject to censorship.
A case involving La Tercera
reflects the public’s opposition to
any kind of censorship. A drug-
related case was being tried in
Chile and some members of the
judiciary had been implicated.
The courts slapped a gag order
on the Chilean press, preventing
it from covering the trial. La
Tercera set up a website in
the United States in order to
legally cover the trial. Unable to
control the flow of information,
the government relented and
revoked the gag order.