Canal 5 was established in 1979 during the military rule. It had been operated until 1998 by the Ministry of Defense. Following the peace agreements with the guerrillas, it was moved to the Ministry of Education in 2003 and later affiliated with the Maya Languages Academy, an autonomous state organization responsible for promoting the culture of the Maya peoples in Guatemala. Today, Canal 5 is known as TV Maya, a multicultural broadcaster that promotes the identity of the indigenous people in Guatemala. The outlet has been confronted in recent years with major financial crises.
Media assets
Television: Canal 5 TV Maya
State Media Matrix Typology: Independent State-Funded (ISF)
Ownership and governance
The station is fully administered by the Academy of Maya Languages. It is governed by a board of directors appointed every four years by the academy. Although it depends on state funding, the station is independent thanks to the autonomy status of the academy that runs the station. Because the funds received by the station from the academy are very small, TV Maya has a limited outreach.
Source of funding and budget
TV Maya is fully funded by the government, and is not legally allowed to carry advertising. The station in 2017 had an annual budget of GTQ 1.5m (under US$ 200,000), according to the latest data available from the outlet.
Editorial independence
The content on TV Maya is independent of the government. On its YouTube channel, its journalistic analyses include critical comments about various topics.
The station has certain guarantees for its editorial independence first of all because it is not operated directly by the government, but by an autonomous state entity that is legally established through a government decree and a law.
No independent assessment/oversight mechanism to validate the editorial independence of TV Maya has been identified.
August 2023