Séptimo día is a Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

n television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 newsmagazine

Newsmagazine

A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published piece of paper, magazine or a radio or television program, usually weekly, featuring articles or segments on current events...

 broadcast by Caracol TV

Caracol TV

Caracol Televisión is a Colombian private national television network, owned by Julio Mario Santo Domingo.- History :Caracol Televisión started in 1954 when Organización de Radiodifusora Caracol offered to afford national television costs, then state-run, through commercial spots...

 on Sunday evenings. It proclaims itself as "a weapon against injustice".

Séptimo día first aired in 1996 on Canal Uno

Canal Uno

Canal Uno is the first Colombian national television channel. It started 13 June 1954 on Channel 8 in Bogotá. It is state-owned, operated by Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia, and privately-run, with programming companies known as programadoras bidding for time slots with the Colombian...

, when Caracol TV was still a production company. At the time it was presented by its creator, Manuel Teodoro

Manuel Teodoro

Manuel Teodoro is a Filipino-Colombian journalist, born 1963 in New Orleans.His father is a Filipino and his mother was born in Cartagena de Indias. Teodoro majored in journalism from the University of Miami and started his career in 1984 as an editorial assistant for CBS News. Later he moved to...

, and Adriana Vargas

Adriana Vargas

Adriana Vargas is a Colombian journalist and news presenter for UNIVISION 41, based in New York.Vargas majored in Social Communication from Pontifical Xavierian University in 1998, but she debuted in journalism two years before with a small production company...

. The show was successful, but also had to face a the large amount of sues against it, which was the reason Caracol TV pulled it out of air in 2000. Eventually, Caracol TV won all the legal suits.

A new season of Séptimo día started on 10 June 2007, presented by Teodoro and Silvia Corzo

Silvia Corzo

Silvia Milena Corzo Pinto is a Colombian lawyer, journalist and presenter of Noticias Uno newscast.-Biography:...

. Since 1 May 2011, María Lucía Fernández

María Lucía Fernández

María Lucía Fernández is a Colombian journalist and news presenter.She worked as a model in her teens to afford her studies in Social Communication at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. As news presenter, she worked in TV shows like Panorama, QAP Noticias and 7:30 Caracol. Since 1998, she's one...

 co-hosts the programme with Teodoro.

In the Miami, Florida

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

 market

Media market

A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...

, Séptimo día is broadcast by WGEN-TV

WGEN-TV

WGEN-TV is a Spanish-language television station in Key West, Florida, broadcasting locally on VHF channel 8 as a Spanish-language independent station under the GenTV branding...

 on Sunday nights.

Format

The format is somewhat similar to CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 60 Minutes

60 Minutes

60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....

, featuring three long-form news stories. Séptimo día usually undertakes its own investigations. Some episodes feature one or two stories; one story can also span multiple episodes.

One of the stories deals with controversial issues, such as euthanasia

Euthanasia

Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....

, organ donation

Organ donation

Organ donation is the donation of biological tissue or an organ of the human body, from a living or dead person to a living recipient in need of a transplantation. Transplantable organs and tissues are removed in a surgical procedure following a determination, based on the donor's medical and...

s or even the Colombian armed conflict

Colombian Armed Conflict

The Colombian armed conflict or Colombian Civil War are terms that are employed to refer to the current asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict in Colombia that has existed since approximately 1964 or 1966, between the Colombian government and peasant guerrillas such as the Revolutionary Armed...

.

As its America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

n counterpart, many stories focus on allegations of wrongdoing and corruption, but instead politicians or corporations, Séptimo día deals with companies, businesses or persons who usually practice scams and who are denounced by the viewers. They are commonly either subjected to an interview, or try to evade contact with the Séptimo día crew altogether, either by written notice or by simply fleeing from the approaching journalist and their camera crew.

The third story is often a more light-hearted report or a profile.

Controversies on Season 2

On the episode broadcast 2 March 2008, Séptimo día denounced a corruption

Political corruption

Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...

 case at the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), involving an employee who was asking for money

Bribery

Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...

 in order to speed adoption

Adoption

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...

 processes up. The next week, Elvira Forero, director of ICBF, sent a letter to Paulo Laserna Phillips

Paulo Laserna Phillips

Paulo Laserna Phillips is a Colombian journalist, political scientist, television presenter and businessman. He served as the CEO for Caracol TV between 2001 and 2011....

, CEO of Caracol TV, stating that the corruption case was presented in a "sensationalist

Yellow journalism

Yellow journalism or the yellow press is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism...

" way. Ms Forero added that the case was already under investigation and that Séptimo día had broken a law forbidding media to broadcast or publish names and data "which identify or could lead to the identification of children and teenagers." On 25 April 2008, the involved employee was captured and later released because an error on the arrest procedure; she would be captured again two months later.

On the 9 March 2008 episode, Séptimo día broadcast a special report by Teodoro about the situation of Colombian immigrants

Colombian diaspora

Colombian diaspora refers to the mass movement of Colombian people who have emigrated from the country in search of safety and/or a better quality of life. Many of those who moved were educated middle and upper middle-class Colombians; because of this, the Colombian diaspora can be referred to as a...

 in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, victims of xenophobia

Xenophobia

Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...

. Teodoro interviewed a fellow journalist, living in Spain, who was beaten and kicked by Spaniard youngsters. The next day, the journalist called W Radio

W Radio (Colombia)

W Radio Colombia is a news/talk/adult contemporary Colombian radio network, part of Caracol Radio. It started in 1973 as adult contemporary station Caracol Estéreo...

 to denounce that Teodoro stated, by using the voice-over

Voice-over

Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...

 technique, in the episode broadcast the night before —which he watched on Caracol TV Internacional

Caracol TV Internacional

Caracol TV Internacional is the international signal of Colombia's Caracol TV. It offers general programming aimed to Colombians abroad, mostly consisting of old Caracol TV telenovelas, series, and entertainment shows...

— that he received intensive care

Intensive Care Unit

thumb|220px|ICU roomAn intensive-care unit , critical-care unit , intensive-therapy unit/intensive-treatment unit is a specialized department in a hospital that provides intensive-care medicine...

 and suffered several fracture

Fracture

A fracture is the separation of an object or material into two, or more, pieces under the action of stress.The word fracture is often applied to bones of living creatures , or to crystals or crystalline materials, such as gemstones or metal...

s, which, according to him, was not true. He called Teodoro a "liar" and a "sensationalist." In an article on this incident for a magazine, veteran journalist Gustavo Castro Caycedo criticizes Teodoro and quotes Jorge Enrique Botero (also a journalist), who had questioned in 1999 the use of the hidden camera

Hidden camera

A hidden camera is a still or video camera used to film people without their knowledge. The camera is "hidden" because it is either not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another object...

 technique in Séptimo días season 1.

A Bogotá

Bogotá

Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

 local prosecutor prevented Caracol TV to broadcast an episode two days before its scheduled transmission on 25 April 2008, and asked for the raw audiovisual material recorded for a report by Marcela Pulido, dealing with the case of an unidentified woman who had health and personal issues because of a poorly performed buttock augmentation

Buttock augmentation

thumb|right|250px|Gluteoplasty: the pre-operative, back and oblique-right aspects , and the like post-operative aspects , of a combined procedure of buttocks augmentation and thigh contouring.Gluteoplasty thumb|right|250px|Gluteoplasty: the pre-operative, back and oblique-right aspects (left), and...

. The woman wished to expose (with the help of Séptimo día) the beautician who, without being a physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 or a plastic surgeon, illegally performed the surgery. The prosecutor, who was investigating the case, based her decision on the grounds that Séptimo día was "asked to deliver all of the information obtained by [it] to this office, in order to clarify the incidents in question." Teodoro told Foundation for Press Freedom, an NGO which works for journalists' rights, that he was "surprised that just before the programme was to be aired, legal proceedings are said to have been initiated by the Prosecutor's Office," because the only investigation on the issue so far was "the one his programme has undertaken." The episode would eventually be broadcast 24 August 2008, after getting an authorization.

On 20 and 27 July 2008 Séptimo día dealt with the so-called Narcotourism

Drug tourism

Drug tourism is travel for the purpose of obtaining or using drugs for personal use that are unavailable or illegal in one's home jurisdiction. Drug tourism can be also defined as the phenomenon by which one's travel experience involves the consumption and usage of drugs that are considered to be...

 in Bogotá, Medellín

Medellín

Medellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.3 million...

, and Cartagena

Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...

, showing how foreigners come to Colombia in order to get easy and cheap access to drug

Recreational drug use

Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...

s. Cartagena's police commander

Colombian National Police

The National Police of Colombia is the national police force of Colombia. Although the National Police is not part of the Military of Colombia , it constitutes along with them the "Public Force" and is also controlled by the Ministry of Defense. They are the largest police force in Colombia...

, Col.

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 Carlos Mena Bravo, after being asked by journalist Gloria Lozano why foreigners are not searched

Search of persons

Police officers in various jurisdictions have power to search members of the public, for example, for weapons, drugs and stolen property. This article concerns searches of members of the public who have not been arrested and who are not held in detention. For search powers in relation to those...

 when some parties allegedly known to involve drug use end at sunrise, replied "we do not want to bother the foreigners, if it is not because of the results of an investigative process of information we have received about this person may be possessing narcotics."
Gloria Lozano: A las 6:00 de la mañana, justo cuando empieza a amanecer se prenden las luces de la discoteca, la rumba termina. En frente de la entrada principal se encuentran un par de policías. Usted se preguntará: ¿por qué no hacen una requisa? El coronel Carlos Ramiro Mena es el Comandante de Policía de Cartagena... Coronel, ¿la policía le hace requisas a los extranjeros en las calles?
Col. Carlos Mena: Nosotros no queremos molestar a los extranjeros, si no es por el resultado de un proceso investigativo o por información que hayamos recibido de que ésta persona podría portar estupefacientes.
Lozano: Es por este trato flexible que los extranjeros dicen amar a Colombia y en especial a Cartagena: nadie los molesta, andan libremente consumiendo droga muy barata sin meterse en líos policiales. In the following days, tourist guides demonstrated showing their contempt for the way they were depicted in the episode. The demonstrators were carrying banners, one of them reading "Séptimo día is a lie." They told Barranquilla

Barranquilla

Barranquilla is an industrial port city and municipality located in northern Colombia, near the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Atlántico Department, it is the largest industrial city and port in the Colombian Caribbean region with a population of 1,148,506 as of 2005, which makes it Colombia's...

-based El Heraldo newspaper that two men, claiming to be tourist guides, who told the journalists about where and who sold drugs were actually impostor

Impostor

An impostor or imposter is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often to try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering, but just as often for purposes of espionage or law enforcement....

s. In a column published by El Colombiano

El Colombiano

El Colombiano is the leading newspaper in Antioquia Department in Colombia whose headquarters are located in Medellín.The first edition of this newspaper was published on February 6, 1912 which only had one page, 13 advertisements, but no news articles. In 1976, the first color pictures were added...

 newspaper, writer Pascual Gaviria criticized Séptimo día because "the tone [of the special report on Narcotourism] was of false surprise and permanent moral condemnation."

On 27 March 2011, Séptimo día dealt with the case of Sandra/Alexander, born in 1972 with ambiguous genitalia (micropenis

Micropenis

Micropenis is an unusually small penis. A common criterion is a dorsal erect penile length of at least 2.5 standard deviations smaller than the mean human penis size. The condition is usually recognized shortly after birth...

) and who had his testicles surgically removed

Intersex surgery

Intersex surgery is one of several terms referring to surgery performed to correct birth defects or early injuries of the genitalia, primarily for the purposes of making the appearance more normal and to reduce the likelihood of future problems...

, with the knowledge of her/his parents following the advice of Dr. Efraim Bonilla Arciniegas, who would be later considered the "father of pediatric surgery

Pediatric surgery

Pediatric surgery or paediatric surgery is a subspecialty of surgery involving the surgery of fetuses, infants, children, adolescents, and young adults...

" in Colombia. Such was the then state of art procedure for these cases at the time

History of intersex surgery

The history of intersex surgery is intertwined with the development of the specialities of pediatric surgery, pediatric urology, and pediatric endocrinology, with our increasingly refined understanding of sexual differentiation, with the development of political advocacy groups united by a sexual...

. Dr. Bonilla was interviewed by Séptimo día reporter Susana Suescún, who did not initially tell him about the specific case he dealt with more than 30 years before. The episode included an interview with a former member of the Medical Ethics Tribunal, who stated that the surgery was a "fatal mistake." During the episode, which focused in the suffering of Sandra/Alexander after having found out he was actually a man, following years of being raised as a woman, the journalists heavily criticized Dr. Bonilla, claiming he was "playing to be God". The episode prompted dozens of complaints by fellow physicians and medicine students, with several institutions such as Hospital de la Misericordia (a pediatric hospital where Dr. Bonilla works), the Colombian Society of Pediatric Surgery, and the Colombian Surgery Association, among others, sending letters of protest to the network.

The episode was analysed on the 14 April 2011 episode of Doble vía (a programme of the Caracol TV defensoría del televidente [viewer ombudswoman's office]), where Amparo Pérez, the network's viewer ombudswoman, stated that "a more accurate look from the point of view of medicine" was missing on the Séptimo día episode. On the 17 April 2011 episode, Séptimo día issued a clarification, recognizing that when contacting Dr. Bonilla they did not specifically tell him about the case, and broadcasting excerpts of a second interview with Dr. Bonilla (on his request) which was not broadcast 27 March, where the physician clarifies why did he recommended the procedure, citing the pioneering surgery work by endocrinologists

Endocrinology

Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...

 from Johns Hopkins Hospital

Johns Hopkins Hospital

The Johns Hopkins Hospital is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland . It was founded using money from a bequest by philanthropist Johns Hopkins...

, such as doctor John Money

John Money

John William Money was a psychologist, sexologist and author, specializing in research into sexual identity and biology of gender...

, and explaining the controversies in the medical community which followed. Suescún also travelled to Quito

Quito

San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...

, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, trying to interview a physician who had continued with the treatment for Sandra/Alexander, after the family moved to that city.

External links

Official site
} Site on WGEN-TV A 2000 interview with Manuel Teodoro following its first cancellation Press release on Season 2 launch