An image of the Cooperativa de Chile radio booth.
The 2020 recognition of excellence from the Gabo Foundation, founded by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez to promote ethical journalism and innovation, reaches an Ibero-American radio for the first time and has remained in the hands of Radio Cooperativa de Chile, according to reports. announced today.
An indispensable and leading voice in the last 85 years of the history of the South American country, the governing council of the institution has decided to reward the station for its high quality journalistic work, as a team, its relevant contribution to the history of Chilean democracy, highlighting above all the role that women journalists have played in its press department.
Through the Cooperative - as this station is known, which has informed, accompanied and listened to generations of Chileans - the Gabo Foundation seeks to highlight the indispensable work in the framework of the pandemic of radio stations throughout the region, large and the little ones.
“Their voices and stories are part of the daily life of Chileans, which speaks of the relevance of journalism that this team of journalistic communication professionals has exercised, with intelligence and solidity, by focusing on reporting and investigating the facts and offering in a calm tone, a reliable daily information package, despite the pressures and crises, "says the governing council of the foundation, chaired by the French, Jean-François Fogel, on Radio Cooperativa.
The award, which consists of an award and $ 10,000 to the 35 journalists who currently make up its press department, will be presented at the Gabo Award ceremony on January 21, virtually.
Along with recognizing the exercise of an indispensable journalism and with a clear spirit of public service in recent decades, the Chilean station has been awarded for its work in recent months: "They have distinguished themselves in this historic moment for credible news treatment, judicious and consistent deployed since October 2019, when the social outbreak began in Chile that led to the unprecedented call for a Constituent Convention a year later, assuming in parallel, in addition, since March 2020, impeccable coverage of the facts and effects of the serious crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, ”says the governing council, composed, among others, of Héctor Feliciano (Puerto Rico), Jon Lee Anderson (United States), Leila Guerriero (Argentina), María Teresa Ronderos (Colombia ) and Sergio Ramírez (Nicaragua) and Mónica González (Chile).
Radio Cooperativa has been an important piece in the recent history of Chile, in its dark and bright moments.
"His impartial journalism, based on facts and without fanfare, has earned the trust of Chileans, at a time when part of journalists opt for activism and identity positions," says Jaime Abello, CEO and co-founder of the Gabo Foundation .
"Cooperativa has been configured as a common space for Chileans," Abello adds about this private station with a vocation for public service.
It began its broadcasts in 1935, in Valparaíso –about 100 kilometers from Santiago de Chile– under the name of Radio Cooperativa Vitalicia.
In the 50s he conquered audiences with his
live
shows
, in the 60s with his radio plays and since the 70s with his news program
El Diario de Cooperativa
, which is part of the collective memory of citizens of all ages.
"It has gone from journalistic resistance with the voice of truth in times of dictatorship, to the basic but indispensable informational rigor, balanced and impartial, since the recovery of democracy in 1990," says the governing council when arguing the reasons for deliver to Cooperativa this eighth version of the award, which has only been awarded once to a team and not individually.
"In those very difficult times all its journalists accepted a dangerous and austere path: they survived shutdowns (some very long), auditors who reviewed the notes before issuing them, and circumvented censorship with courage and ingenuity," says the council's minutes. rector of the Gabo Foundation on the work of radio in dictatorship (1973-1990).
“We are honored by this award for the trajectory of the press department, because it recognizes decades of work carried out with effort by many people,” says Oscar Pasten, the director of Radio Cooperativa.
For Paula Molina, general editor of Cooperativa Podcast, "the award forces us to redouble our commitment to truth and innovation that we have with a large community of people, whom we respect."
"The Gabo Foundation award has a worldwide resonance that is important for a radio that we do with hard work from a small country," says the editor and host.
According to Sergio Campos, a journalist and one of the radio's symbolic announcers, "during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, Cooperativa was able to rescue the chapters that were hidden in the vast majority of the media."
With 40 years of work in the station, Campos wrote his memoirs that he titled with a wink to one of the iconic phrases of the news program: "The voice of the radio is calling."
The recognition has had a special meaning for the journalists who day by day have pushed the press department of the radio, since in the seventies it was directed for the first time by Delia Vergara.
Because women have played a central role at different times: Raquel Correa, Patricia Politzer, Gemma Contreras, Manola Robles, among many others who opened spaces for new generations of reporters and broadcasters.
“I have learned the word team on Radio Cooperativa,” says Paula Bravo, who came to the station to do her internships 16 years ago and today hosts a program.
“When I arrived there were two women and this award shows that those who left –which were probably even fewer before I arrived– have made history and helped the press department grow, with all that the presence of women, with their particular view of the world ”.
For Verónica Franco, one of the most important voices on the radio where she has worked for 30 years, “in Cooperativa there have always been many women working and the reporters have been on the street alongside the men, as they do today. does the journalist who covers police events ”.
"The radio has always known about the role of women in society and journalism."
The 2020 recognition of excellence of the foundation takes place within the framework of the eighth edition of the Gabo Festival - the great festival of journalism, curiosity and culture - which is held virtually from November 30 to December 11.