Can Plaza Pública Be Trusted? Bias Analysis, Ownership, and Fact-Checking
Plaza Pública Overview and Political Bias
Plaza Pública is often perceived as having a progressive, reformist bias, focusing heavily on social justice, human rights, and systemic corruption. Critics from the Guatemalan business elite and conservative circles characterize its investigations as partisan or ideologically driven, though the outlet maintains it adheres to rigorous, fact-based investigative standards.
| Standpoint | Assessment |
|---|---|
| Overall political leaning | Left |
| Estimated number of readers | 300,000 |
| Israel support | Human rights focused; generally critical of military escalations |
| Use of loaded / emotional language | Low |
| Target Audience | Elite / Academic / Activist |
Plaza Pública History
Established in February 2011, Plaza Pública was founded by the Universidad Rafael Landívar in Guatemala City. It emerged as the country’s first digital-only investigative news site, aiming to provide deep-dive reporting and analytical content that traditional commercial media often overlooked, eventually becoming a prominent voice in Central American journalism.
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Who owns Plaza Pública?
Plaza Pública is a non-profit media project based at the Universidad Rafael Landívar, a Jesuit institution. While the university provides structural support and some funding, the outlet relies significantly on grants from international organizations such as the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and various European development agencies.