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Puerto Rican Unions Call for FCC to Pull the Plug on Univision
Citing "cultural insensitivity" and failure to live up to required local broadcast standards, an alliance of Puerto Rican media unions and community groups is urging the Federal Communications Commission to deny license renewal to the island's largest TV station, which is operated by U.S. media giant Univision.
The Alliance of Puerto Rican Artists and Support Groups, known by its Spanish acronym APAGA, charged that Univision has dropped local programming, cut jobs, shifted its news focus away from the community and has even discriminated against local actors and newscasters for "speaking Puerto Rican." Univision took over operation of the station, WLII in San Juan, in 2002.
According to APAGA, Univision doesn't like the Puerto Rican Spanish dialect and has dropped the use of local actors because it is trying to impose an "internationalized" dialect throughout its entire network. Most Univision programming is produced in Mexico and Venezuela and is directed at people who speak "Chicano or Mexican Spanish," the group stated in its Jan. 3 petition to the FCC.
Newspaper Guild-CWA Local 33225 is a member of APAGA and represents 120 technicians and news department employees at the station. According to the local's executive secretary Angel Baez, the number of locally produced shows has dropped from about 50 down to only three under Univision's management, having been replaced by "canned" network programming.
In addition, WLII's news orientation has shifted to Univision's Miami studios, a change that had potentially deadly consequences last fall, Baez said in a statement submitted with the filing. While the Miami news operation was reporting on hurricanes hitting mainland Florida, the station gave islanders no warning of Hurricane Jeanne as it was bearing down on Puerto Rico, eventually hitting the island dead center Sept. 15.
"This failure to cover our news from our perspective does not serve our community or localism in broadcasting," Baez said.
Univision's response to the APAGA filing had an ironic twist. Company executive Larry Sands sent a letter to the station employees trying to explain that Univision isn't culturally insensitive and in fact has a "commitment to localism in Puerto Rico." The letter was in English, a language few of the workers speak or read.
The Alliance of Puerto Rican Artists and Support Groups, known by its Spanish acronym APAGA, charged that Univision has dropped local programming, cut jobs, shifted its news focus away from the community and has even discriminated against local actors and newscasters for "speaking Puerto Rican." Univision took over operation of the station, WLII in San Juan, in 2002.
According to APAGA, Univision doesn't like the Puerto Rican Spanish dialect and has dropped the use of local actors because it is trying to impose an "internationalized" dialect throughout its entire network. Most Univision programming is produced in Mexico and Venezuela and is directed at people who speak "Chicano or Mexican Spanish," the group stated in its Jan. 3 petition to the FCC.
Newspaper Guild-CWA Local 33225 is a member of APAGA and represents 120 technicians and news department employees at the station. According to the local's executive secretary Angel Baez, the number of locally produced shows has dropped from about 50 down to only three under Univision's management, having been replaced by "canned" network programming.
In addition, WLII's news orientation has shifted to Univision's Miami studios, a change that had potentially deadly consequences last fall, Baez said in a statement submitted with the filing. While the Miami news operation was reporting on hurricanes hitting mainland Florida, the station gave islanders no warning of Hurricane Jeanne as it was bearing down on Puerto Rico, eventually hitting the island dead center Sept. 15.
"This failure to cover our news from our perspective does not serve our community or localism in broadcasting," Baez said.
Univision's response to the APAGA filing had an ironic twist. Company executive Larry Sands sent a letter to the station employees trying to explain that Univision isn't culturally insensitive and in fact has a "commitment to localism in Puerto Rico." The letter was in English, a language few of the workers speak or read.