Colombian news website
La Silla Vacia
(
Spanish
: "The Empty Chair") is a Colombian
news
website
founded by journalist and writer
Juanita Leon
in 2009.
[3]
The site focuses primarily on
Colombian politics
.
La Silla Vacia
describes itself as an
"informative and interactive medium for people interested in Colombian political current issues,"
by focusing on
"stories which actually describe the way power is exercised in Colombia: on political figures who pull the strings of power, strategies in order to reach and keep it, on ideas and interests which underlie the big decisions taken in the country,"
aiming to do
"good
journalism
."
[4]
Name
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]
Its name, "The Empty Chair" (or, alternatively, "The Empty Seat"), makes reference to at least two political events in Colombia.
[2]
The first one occurred 7 January 1999, when the
failed peace process
between
president
Andres Pastrana
administration and
FARC
started.
Manuel Marulanda Velez
(aka
Tirofijo / Sureshot
), FARC top leader at the time, refused to attend the ceremony held in
San Vicente del Caguan
, leaving a plastic white chair assigned to him empty.
The second alludes to a proposal prompted by the
parapolitics scandal
. The idea was to punish lawmakers and ultimately parties involved with illegal armed groups in case they are investigated or arrested, leaving their seats in Congress empty, instead of being replaced with another politician. It was passed by the
House of Representatives
in May 2009,
[5]
but it will be enforced only if the lawmaker is sentenced, and it will not apply for current Congresspeople,
[6]
just as president
Alvaro Uribe Velez
wished.
[7]
But the founder has said that the name comes from a march of indigenous communities in Cauca who marched through the Pan American road to meet President Uribe and he never went to the encounter. So they left an empty seat for him. "
Contents
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The website was originally divided in five big sections:
- Desde la Silla
("From the Chair"): the main stories published on the website. Most of them are journalistic articles or analysis pieces. There are some interviews, including two with presidential pre-candidates for the
2010 elections
Sergio Fajardo
[8]
and
Rafael Pardo
.
[9]
These were conducted through a
live
transmission
via internet, with users asking questions using the website,
Facebook
, and
Twitter
.
- La Movida del Dia
: every weekday a question on a current issue is posted by the staff. The question is answered by political figures, analysts, and intellectuals. Users can "endorse" or "not endorse" these answers.
- Querido diario
("Dear diary"): briefs focusing on political gossip.
- El Blogueo
("The Blogging"): blogs by analysts, organizations, and intellectuals, focusing on economy, social responsibility, internet, media, relations with Venezuela, Latin America and the United States, etc.
- La Butaca
("The Stool"): described as a section where
"from diverse narrative formats with no limits the other [Colombia] is shown on La Butaca, with their sometimes ironic, acid, or simply different glances."
Now, after its most recent redesign, the sections have changed to:
- Historias: 4 daily investigated and original stories are published
- La Silla Llena: it´s a debate platform where more than 500 experts in different fields blog in their respective networks.
- La Silla Academica: it´s a section dedicated to distribute the knowledge created by the universities subscribed to this service.
- Quien es Quien: it´s the most complete directory of powerful people in Colombia
- Hagame el cruce: it´s the section where the databases of the media are compiled.
User registration
is optional for reading the website, but compulsory in order to leave comments.
Funding
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La Silla Vacia
was originally funded through a series of grants (the grantees include Ford Foundation,
Open Society Institute
, National Endowment for Democracy and the British Embassy in Colombia), crowdfunding, and several commercial projects. Now less than 30 per cent of its revenues come from grants and most come from crowdfunding and commercial projects.
References
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External links
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