It was a decision that was communicated at the last minute. It was ten o’clock on Thursday night and the journalist Matias del Rio I read the statement that I would then endorse and later send Chilean National Television (TVN), in which they reversed the decision to remove him from the political program National state.
“In order to avoid any interpretation that differs from the original spirit of the decision, we communicate that the ‘National State’ will carry out its new format with a driver, a role that journalists Constanza Santa María and Matías del Río will exercise alternately on Sundays” , finally prayed the statement. This was later sent by the president of the TVN board, Andrea Fresardto the press officer of the Ministry General Secretariat of Government (Segegob), Gladys Pierolain order to inform the portfolio headed by the spokeswoman Camila Vallejo (PC).
That was the result of a long day that began with an extraordinary meeting of the directors that began at 2:00 p.m. and lasted until around 6:30 p.m. There, the corporate plan was found after two controversial weeks for the state signal. Tempers had already heated up when on Sunday, July 24, the director close to socialism, Nivia Palma, criticized in a tweet an imbalance of panelists in National state with a greater presence of adherents of the Rejection; and a week later, this worsened when it became known that the TVN administration had decided to remove the host Matías del Río from the program, which caused different political sectors to accuse “censorship” on the channel.
But the straw that broke the camel’s back, they say on the state channel, were the words of the president of the Ethics Court of the Association of Journalists, Ethel Pliscoff, who on Wednesday, August 3, opined that the journalist had “serious ethical flaws.” A day later, Del Río sent a letter to all the directors requesting that the entity reject the accusations, which brought more expectation around the day, which finally ended with the support of the board.
“Given the seriousness of such an accusation, I respectfully and formally come to request the TVN board of directors to make a statement about these statements and to express a resounding rejection of them, for being severely and dangerously unfounded, both with regard to TVN’s trajectory and commitment to impartiality, pluralism and tolerance since the return of democracy, as well as with regard to the strict compliance that I have given to my duty as journalism professional”, stated the journalist in his letter.
In TVN they believe that the issue was resolved well. Six of its seven members participated in the extraordinary appointment of the directory – Nivia Palma was absent, since she would be with Covid-19 -, in addition to the executive director of the signal, Alfredo Ramirez. It was this one who made them a proposal that would convince the directors: to alternate the leadership of the program between Santa María and Del Río. Everyone agreed.
However, there were also several crosswords in the quote. For example, the director Rodrigo Cid He asked to trust what the administrative management of the channel does, including the executive director and the press director, Pablo Badilla. He argued that they were the ones who removed Del Río and that, by dealing with the issue in the board, it would appear as a “removal of the floor” from the directors to the administrative staff that they themselves endorsed in May. Other sources maintain that this comment was actually made by worker representative Roberto Reyes.
In any case, among the directors, the idea prevailed that the declaration of the member of the College of Journalists should be answered categorically, because if a professional from the channel was questioned, the entire signal was being questioned.
In that sense, there was annoyance in some directors before the role that their peers from the opposition had Pauline Kantor (Evopolis), gonzalo lamb (UDI) and Pilar Vergara (Ind.), who on Monday, August 1, issued a public statement against the decision. The annoyance was that they themselves ratified the executive director and the press director – who made the decision to marginalize Del Río – when they were appointed to the position. It was also said that it was contradictory that they accused institutional damage and at the same time accused “political reasons” in their statement.
This morning, from the Segegob they assured The Third PM that “tvn’s official statement explicitly rules out any intervention, political pressure or censorship, concepts completely removed from reality and from our point of view. We must all care for and protect TVN and, therefore, it is not appropriate to see interventions where there are none. The value of TVN is its autonomy and its plurality”.
There were also talks regarding the format of the show. Some directors think National state is deficient: it has few points of rating, does not set guidelines and does not talk about its content, but about its presenters. In any case, there was consensus that, if changes are made, they should be carried out after the September 4 plebiscite, since any modification can be interpreted as an action with political ends. The directors asked that the changes remain pending in the minutes.
In the directory it also made noise that Palma did not attend the meeting, whom they see as the cause of tensions. The director sent a message to the WhatsApp group previously to notify her of her absence, but some questioned that she did not connect remotely. Sources of the channel affirm that in those days there were dialogues between the directors.
The meeting ended with President Fresard asking members not to leak anything. But the next day the crisis on TVN continued to be a topic. An appeal for protection filed in the Court of Appeals of Santiago by the lawyer Pedro Orthusteguy against the board for removing Del Río. In social networks, this judicial action was falsely attributed to the journalist, but he later came out to deny it in a tweet, in which he also reported that he is “preparing National state Sunday”.