There are
many poor-quality newspapers and magazines
available on the streets of Lima and throughout
the rest of Peru. Many of the newspapers stick
mainly to sex and sport, while magazines tend to
focus on terror and violence and the frequent
deaths caused by major traffic accidents. The
two most established (and establishment) daily
newspapers are El Comercio and Expreso; the
latter devoting vast amounts of space to anti-Communist
propaganda. El Comercio ( www.elcomercio.com.pe/)
is much more balanced but still tends to toe the
political party of the day's line. El Comercio
's daily Seccion C also has the most
comprehensive cultural listings of any paper -
good for just about everything going on in Lima.
In addition, there's the sensationalist tabloid
La Republica, which takes a middle-of-the-road
to liberal approach to politics; and Cambio
provides interesting tabloid reading. One of the
better weekly magazines is the fairly liberal
Caretas, generally offering mildly critical
support to whichever government happens to be in
power. There's one environmental and travel
magazine - Rumbos - which publishes articles in
both Spanish and English and has excellent
photographic features.
The Cusco-based weekly, New World News, is an
excellent English-language newspaper , available
weekly across Peru in the major cities. It
reports on issues relevant to tourism plus news
around South America and world issues. The
business weekly Lima Herald, also in English,
can be bought in Lima Centro and sporadically in
Cusco. For more serious, in-depth coverage, the
monthly Andean Report, is particularly good on
Peruvian and Andean political and economic
issues.
International newspapers are fairly hard to come
by; your best bet for English papers is to go to
the Embassy in Lima, which has a selection of
one- to two-week old papers, such as The Times
and Independent for reference only. US papers
are easier to find; the bookstalls around Plaza
San Martin in Lima Centro and those along
Avenida Larco and Diagonal in Miraflores sell
the Miami Herald, the Herald Tribune, Newsweek
and Time magazine, but even these are likely to
be four or five days old. If you're not moving
around too much, consider having The Guardian
Weekly, which has comprehensive international
coverage, sent to you poste restante.
Peruvians watch a lot of television - mostly
soccer and soap operas, though TV is also a main
source of news. Many programmes come from Mexico,
Brazil and the US ( The Flintstones and
Bewitched are perennial favourites), with
occasional eccentric selections from elsewhere
and a growing presence of manga-style cartoons.
There are nine main terrestial channels, of
which channels 7 and 13 show marginally better
quality programmes. Panamericana is Peru's top
station, but all the channels are crammed with
adverts.
Cable and, even more so, satellite channels are
increasingly forming an important part of Peru's
media. Partly due to the fact that it can be
received in even the remotest of settlements and
partly because it is beyond the control of any
government or other censorship, satellite TV
appears set to dominate the media scene and the
world view of the nation's youth.
If you have a radio you can pick up the BBC
World Service at most hours of the day -
frequencies shift around on the 19m, 25m and 49m
short-wave bands; for a schedule of programmes,
contact the British Council in Lima. The Voice
of America is also constantly available on short
wave. The radio station Sol Armonia is dedicated
to classical music on FM89. Also, the RPP (Radio
Programmes del Peru) on FM 89.7 has 24-hour
bulletins
Alternatively, you can tune in to an incredible
mess of Peruvian stations , nearly all of which
are music and advertisement based. International
pop, salsa and other Latin pop can be picked up
most times of day and night all along the FM
wave band, while traditional Peruvian and Andean
folk music can usually be found all over the AM
dial. Radio Miraflores (96FM) is one of the
best, playing mainly disco and new US/British
rock, though also with a good jazz programme on
Sunday evenings and an excellent news summary
every morning from 7 to 9am. Radio Cien (100FM)
has the occasional programme in English (on
Sunday mornings, for example)
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