By Maira Magro
A group of residents of Villa 31 a large informal settlement , or slum , in the center of Buenos Aires, Argentina, launched its own television channel to show the problems and needs of the community, reported the news agency EFE.
The cable channel, Mundo Villa TV, reaches 1,500 homes, offering both original content and information from other stations such as from Bolivia, Paraguay and Perú, the country where many of the community's population originates. According to La Nación, professionals and scholars are helping the community's youth prepare to work at the station by offering them theoretical and practical classes on journalism, design and photography.
The station is operating with its own studio and equipment, although it still is waiting official permission to broadcast, EFE said. Channel director Víctor Ramos announced that in coming days he will meet with Argentine journalist Dante Quinterno, creator of TV ROC, of the slum Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, to create a network of channels of Latin American communities.
In the four months since it began operating, the channel has run reports denouncing problems in basic services like water and electricity, and in a few weeks the channel plans to begin a news broadcast.
See a video about the new channel on Argentine Public TV.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
