El Siglo (Panama)

El Siglo
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatTabloid[1]
Editor-in-chiefJuan Luis Correa
EditorEduardo Antonio Quirós
News editorMagaly Montilla and Eliezer Navarro
Opinion editorAvenabet Mercado
Sports editorJoel Gonzalez
Photo editorDidier Magallón
Founded16 January 1985 (1985-01-16)
LanguageSpanish
HeadquartersCalle Alejandro A. Duque G., 0815-00507, Zona 4, Panama
Websitewww.elsiglo.com (in Spanish)

El Siglo ("The Century") is a Spanish language daily newspaper published in Panama. It was founded on 9 January 1985 and as of 2010 had the largest circulation of any Panamanian newspaper.[2]

In 1990, after the fall of military ruler Manuel Noriega in the United States invasion of Panama, the paper offered a prize for the best essays that "explain and detail the criminal acts of the deposed tyrant (Noriega) and his followers."[3]

On December 10, 1998, Siglo reporter Carlos Singares was sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment for defamation for a 1993 article he had written about former president Ernesto Pérez Balladares, accusing him of helping to move money out of Panama for former military ruler Omar Torrijos.[4]

In May 2000, Attorney General José Antonio Sossa attempted to jail Singares for alleging that he had pressured journalists, but reversed himself after criticism by President Mireya Moscoso; the following month, Sossa did jail Singares for eight days without trial for reporting in an article that Sossa had visited underage prostitutes.[5][6]

  1. ^ Panama profile - Media
  2. ^ Pérez, Gilberto (16 September 2010). "Récord de El Siglo: vende 66,618 diarios en un día" [Record of the "El Siglo": 66,618 newspapers sells in one day] (in Spanish). El Siglo Digital. Archived from the original on 2010-09-21.
  3. ^ "Prize Offered for Noriega Exposes". Los Angeles Times. Reuters. September 16, 1990. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
  4. ^ "Another jail sentence for Singares". The Committee to Protect Journalists. August 3, 2000. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
  5. ^ "Panama". The Committee to Protect Journalists. 2000. Archived from the original on September 4, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
  6. ^ "Bad News: Panama Determined to Squelch Press Freedom". The Houston Chronicle. August 9, 2000. Archived from the original on May 26, 2024. Retrieved August 29, 2012.