Grupo Órbita

Grupo Órbita is a state-administered media group comprising the digital newspaper La Página, the radio station Órbita FM and the television channel Órbita TV. Once a privately owned commercial outlet, it has been administered by the state since late 2017, after its owner, the former television presenter Jorge Hernández, was arrested and his assets were placed under domain-extinction proceedings in a money-laundering case linked to public funds diverted during the presidency of Elías Antonio Saca. The group continues to operate under government asset administration without an independent public-service framework.

Media assets

Publishing: La Pagina

Radio: Orbita FM

Television: Orbita TV

Ownership and governance

Grupo Órbita is administered by the Consejo Nacional de Administración de Bienes (CONAB), El Salvador’s state asset-administration body. The group was previously owned by Jorge Hernández, a former television presenter who built Órbita TV after leaving the private broadcaster TCS and later acquired the digital daily La Página and Órbita FM. Hernández was arrested in November 2017 on money-laundering charges tied to the diversion of public funds during the presidency of Elías Antonio Saca, and in December 2017 his assets, including media holdings, were placed under domain-extinction measures and passed to CONAB administration.

Public reporting at the time identified Grupo Órbita as the corporate group bringing together La Página, Órbita TV and Órbita FM. CONAB stated that the media outlets and frequencies could remain on air, but under its administration and oversight while the judicial process continued. There is no independent public-service statute, board or editorial-oversight mechanism governing Grupo Órbita. As a commercial media group held and run under state asset administration rather than an outlet created and owned outright by the executive, it sits within the captured public/state-managed category rather than among El Salvador’s directly state-controlled outlets.

Source of funding and budget

CONAB does not disclose regular financial details concerning Grupo Órbita. According to Salvadoran journalists interviewed for this report in November 2024, the group earns revenue through advertising sales while also benefiting from state-linked funding and advertising, though the balance between commercial income, public-sector advertising and any direct state support is not publicly known. The absence of disclosed accounts means the extent of the group’s dependence on public money cannot be independently assessed, a pattern consistent with other CONAB-administered media in the country.

Editorial independence

Journalists from El Salvador interviewed for this report in November 2024 indicated that staff across the group’s outlets are not free to operate autonomously and are expected to provide favourable coverage of political authorities, including state institutions and senior officials. There is no domestic legislation guaranteeing the editorial independence of Grupo Órbita, and the group has no impartial body or mechanism to assess or enforce editorial autonomy. While the El Salvador Journalists Association (APES) maintains a code of ethics intended to apply to all media, it provides no outlet-level enforcement mechanism. In practice, the group’s output aligns with government preferences under state administration.

AI and digital policy

SMM found no evidence that Grupo Órbita or its outlets had published a dedicated public editorial AI-governance policy as of mid-2026. At the national level, El Salvador approved a Law for the Promotion of Artificial Intelligence and Technologies in 2025, creating a national AI framework and a national AI agency under the Presidency. This provides context for the broader media environment but is not an editorial standard for the group’s newsrooms.

At outlet level, Grupo Órbita’s outlets maintain news websites and active social-media channels, but SMM found no disclosed framework governing the use of AI by the group’s stations in editorial production, verification, attribution, synthetic-media labelling, recommendation systems, audience analytics or human oversight. Any AI adoption by the group would therefore appear to be governed by management and state-administration priorities rather than by a published editorial policy.

Classification rationale

Grupo Órbita is classified Captured Public/State-Managed Media (CaPu), unchanged across the cycles in which it has been mapped. It is a formerly private commercial media group placed under CONAB administration after the seizure of its owner’s assets, and it continues to operate without an independent public-service statute, board or editorial-oversight mechanism. Reporting and SMM interviews indicate that its output aligns in practice with government preferences, with journalists expected to provide favourable coverage of the authorities.

It is not classified State-Controlled because it is a commercial media group held under state asset administration rather than an outlet created, owned and directed outright by the executive as part of the Presidency’s communications apparatus. But its governance, financing opacity and reported editorial pressure clearly place it within the captured public/state-managed category. The classification is unchanged for 2026, and the surrounding deterioration in El Salvador’s press-freedom environment has reinforced rather than loosened state influence over the group.

June 2026