Servicio de Comunicación Audiovisual Nacional (SECAN)

The Servicio de Comunicación Audiovisual Nacional (SECAN) is Uruguay’s public broadcasting service, operating the country’s state television and radio. It runs two television channels, Canal 5 and Canal 8, and four public radio stations: Radio Uruguay, Radio Cultura, Babel FM, and Radio Clásica. Uruguay’s state broadcasting has deep roots. State radio dates to 1929 and Law No. 8557, which created the Servicio Oficial de Difusión Radio Eléctrica (SODRE), while public television’s Canal 5 began broadcasting in 1963. The outlets carry a mix of cultural, news, educational, sports, and entertainment programming, and in 2026 the public system carried a package of FIFA World Cup matches, drawing record audiences for the public channel.

Media assets

Television: Canal 5, Canal 8

Radio: Radio Uruguay, Radio Cultura, Radio Babel, Radio Clásica

Ownership and governance

Uruguay’s public television and radio operate under the Ministry of Education and Culture. A 2024 reform, Law No. 20.383, created the Sistema Público de Radio y Televisión Nacional (SIPRATEN) as a decentralised public service linked to the Executive through that ministry, and provided for a three-member board, a president, a vice-president, and a vocal, appointed by the Executive under Article 187 of the Constitution, with staggered terms intended to reduce direct government dependence.

In practice, the transition toward the SIPRATEN model remains incomplete. Official public-media materials continue to operate under the SECAN and Medios Públicos identity, and the leadership remains government-appointed. Following the 2024 national elections, which returned the left-wing Frente Amplio to power, President Yamandú Orsi took office in March 2025, and his government installed the current authorities, headed by the journalist and cultural manager Erika Hoffmann as president of SECAN and director of Canal 5, with Adriana Asti as vocal and Sergio Silvestri as news director of Canal 5. Under the previous centre-right administration of Luis Lacalle Pou, the journalist Gerardo Sotelo had run the public media from 2020 until he stepped down in 2024 to enter electoral politics, later winning a seat in parliament. The pattern in which each incoming government appoints the leadership of the public broadcaster, across administrations of both left and right, is central to its State-Controlled classification.

Source of funding and budget

Uruguay’s state media may generate revenue from airtime and advertising sales, but their principal funding comes from the state budget. Earlier State Media Monitor research recorded SECAN’s 2022 budget allocation at about UYU 546.7m (roughly US$12.3m), and the system remains dependent on public allocations supplemented by service and advertising income. In 2026, the government separately acquired the rights to 32 FIFA World Cup matches, carried on Canal 5 and Antel TV, at a reported cost of about US$4.1m, framing free-to-air access to the tournament as a public-service goal; the broadcasts delivered record audiences for the public channel. The reliance on budget allocations and government decisions of this kind, rather than an independent commercial base, ties SECAN financially to the government of the day.

Editorial independence

Uruguay’s public media have been criticised for editorial alignment under governments of both the left and the right, and the country’s strong overall press-freedom record coexists with persistent concerns about the independence of the state broadcaster specifically. Under the previous administration, director Gerardo Sotelo pledged impartiality on taking office in 2020, but later instructed staff that journalistic content should be reviewed by an official he designated before dissemination, a measure he defended as protecting impartiality but which journalists criticised as prior censorship. The dismissal of a number of public radio journalists in late 2020, attributed by management to low audiences and restructuring, drew further criticism.

Uruguay’s current media law, Law No. 20.383 of 2024, which repealed the 2014 Law No. 19.307, sets out a public-service mission for the SIPRATEN system and requires it to provide independent and impartial information and to ensure editorial and programming independence. In practice, however, the formal legal commitment to independence has not amounted to an effective editorial firewall: the practical enforcement mechanism remains weak or unclear, the institutional transition to the new model is incomplete, and the leadership remains appointed by the Executive. Government influence over public-media content has persisted across administrations, and content analyses conducted for this report in 2021 and 2024 found that the public media occasionally feature opposition voices but have largely reflected the editorial priorities of the government in office.

AI and digital policy

SECAN’s outlets distribute across broadcast and digital platforms, including the Medios Públicos web portal, YouTube channels, and streaming, and the current administration has discussed launching a dedicated streaming channel for public-radio content. State Media Monitor found no dedicated editorial policy governing the use of artificial intelligence at SECAN. Uruguay has pursued a broader national digital and AI agenda, including a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2024 to 2030 led through AGESIC and covering the public and private sectors, but this is a general digital and AI governance framework rather than an editorial-independence safeguard specific to the state media.

Classification rationale

SECAN is classified State-Controlled because its outlets are units of a government ministry, the Ministry of Education and Culture, its director is appointed by the executive, and it is funded predominantly from the state budget, with no functioning independent-oversight mechanism. Although Uruguayan law, now Law No. 20.383 of 2024, formally requires the public media to ensure editorial and programming independence, that commitment has not been enforced in practice, the institutional transition to the new SIPRATEN model is incomplete, and the broadcaster’s leadership has changed with each incoming government. Its content has tended to reflect the priorities of the government of the day. It is an institutional broadcaster of the state, not an autonomous public-service broadcaster with a binding editorial firewall.

July 2026