La Silla Vacía (medio Digital)
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''La Silla Vacía'' (
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
: "The Empty Chair") is a Colombian
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
website founded by journalist and writer Juanita León in 2009. The site focuses primarily on Colombian politics. ''La Silla Vacía'' 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."''


Name

Its name, "The Empty Chair" (or, alternatively, "The Empty Seat"), makes reference to at least two political events in Colombia. The first one occurred 7 January 1999, when the failed peace process between president
Andrés Pastrana Andres or Andrés may refer to: *Andres, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Will County, Illinois, US *Andres, Pas-de-Calais, a commune in Pas-de-Calais, France *Andres (name) *Hurricane Andres * "Andres" (song), a 1994 song by L7 See also ...
administration and FARC started. ''
Manuel Marulanda Vélez Pedro Antonio Marín Marín (13 May 1930 – 26 March 2008), known by his "nom de guerre" Manuel Marulanda Vélez, was the main leader of the Marxist–Leninist FARC-EP ("''Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – Ejército del Pueblo''" ...
'' (aka ''Tirofijo / Sureshot''), FARC top leader at the time, refused to attend the ceremony held in
San Vicente del Caguán San Vicente del Caguán () is a town and municipality in Amazonian Caquetá Department, southern Colombia. Religion Its Marian Catedral Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes (dedicated to the Virgin of Mercy) is the cathedral episcopal see of the ...
, leaving a plastic white chair assigned to him empty. The second alludes to a proposal prompted by the
parapolitics scandal The Colombian parapolitics scandal or "parapolítica" in Spanish (a combination of the words '' paramilitar'' and '' política'') refers to the 2006–present Colombian congressional scandal in which several congressmen and other politicians hav ...
. 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, but it will be enforced only if the lawmaker is sentenced, and it will not apply for current Congresspeople, just as president
Álvaro Uribe Vélez Álvaro (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname (see Spanish naming customs) of Visigothic origin. Some claim it may be related to the Old Norse name Alfarr, formed of the elements ''alf'' "elf" and ''arr'' "warrior ...
wished. 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

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 Sergio Fajardo Valderrama (; born 19 June 1956) is a Colombian politician and mathematician. Fajardo served as the Governor of Antioquia from 2012 to 2016. He first entered politics in 2003 when he was elected Mayor of Medellin, the second-l ...
and
Rafael Pardo Rafael Pardo Rueda (born 26 November 1953) is a Colombian politician. A Liberal party politician and economist, he has previously served as the 1st Minister of Labour of Colombia serving in the Administration of President Juan Manuel Santos Cald ...
. These were conducted through a
live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music *Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of albums ...
transmission Transmission may refer to: Medicine, science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual transmission *** ...
via internet, with users asking questions using the website, Facebook, and Twitter. *La Movida del Día: 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 olombiais 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 Académica: it´s a section dedicated to distribute the knowledge created by the universities subscribed to this service. * Quién es Quién: it´s the most complete directory of powerful people in Colombia * Hágame 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

''La Silla Vacía'' 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


External links


''La Silla Vacía''

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silla Vacia, La Colombian news websites Mass media in Bogotá