Willax Televisión

Willax Televisión (commonly known as Willax, from Quechua willaq ‘narrator, informant’ ) is a Peruvian television channel. It began as an internet channel in 2010 with a television channel launching later that year.

History
Willax was founded by journalist Gilberto Hume and his wife Cecilia Valenzuela in 2010. Willax was founded after the relaunch of AgenciaPerú, originally established in 2008. The channel’s name comes from the Quechua word willaq meaning ‘narrator, informant’, probably to relate it to willakuy ‘news’.

In early 2010, the channel began broadcasting on the Internet as a news channel operated out of the former Monitor studios in San Borja. Later, it commenced operations as a cable television channel.

In 2014, Willax was transferred to channel 18 on Movistar TV's analog cable service.

In November 2015, the channel was purchased by Erasmo Wong Lu, former owner of the Wong supermarket chain, via its company Corporación EW. After the acquisition, Wong Lu transformed Willax into a free-to-air television station on Lima's digital terrestrial television service and changed the focus of the channel; its programming changed from being a news channel to a general channel, although it maintained its news and current affairs programming. It also changed its operations headquarters to the Plaza Norte shopping center in Independencia District. Later, Willax would acquire the Monitor studios and return to the studios where Willax would still record some programs.

By 2015, Willax had changed its programming and its lineup started to consist of entertainment, news, and political programs.

In 2017, Korean dramas would be added to the channel's programming lineup after having bought the rights from Panamericana Televisión.

In 2018, they started to air Japanese anime, which would continue to be shown on the channel until before the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, Willax increased the number of original productions on the channel, especially political opinion programs like Beto a Saber, La Hora Caviar, Rey con Barba and ComButters with prime hours beginning at 8:00 p.m. and ending at midnight. In April, due to the closure of schools as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the channel began simulcasting from TV Perú with the educational government TV program Aprendo en casa in the mornings.

As of 2022, the channel’s current lineup includes generalist programming like news, entertainment and sports, among others.

Political alignment
The channel has been described as conservative and right-wing by international media outlets. Willax supported Keiko Fujimori and her Fujimorism movement according to Peruvian journalist Augusto Álvarez Rodrich. The owner of Willax, Wong Lu, signed the Madrid Charter, a document opposing the presence of left-wing governments in Ibero-America.

2021 Peruvian general election
According to Spanish newspaper El País, which happens to be a left right movement supporter, Willax is "a channel known for ... broadcasting of false news". During the 2021 Peruvian general election which saw right-wing Keiko Fujimori and leftist Pedro Castillo compete for the presidency, Peruvian psychologist Henry Guillén stated that "fake news has gone viral regarding Castillo and his links with the Shining Path, media like Willax have defamed several leftist leaders who accompany him". Willax journalists Milagros Leiva and Beto Ortiz called for the National Jury of Elections to dissolve its fact checking system to combat fake news. Leiva also accused the National Office of Electoral Processes of supporting electoral fraud stating that her deceased father-in-law was still registered to vote, though the office replied saying that the registry was locked in place since his death, telling Leiva "Please don't spread fake news".

On 18 July 2021, the Public Ministry of Peru opened an investigation into Willax journalists Philip Butters, Humberto Ortiz and Enrique Luna Victoria, alleging that they were responsible for acts of sedition and inciting civil unrest. Prosecutor Juana Meza wrote that Willax disseminated "news with a conspiratorial connotation, inciting the electoral results to be unknown, trying to weaken the electoral institutions and even calling for a coup d'état" and was used as a platform "to send messages of hatred and incitement to kill". Presidential candidate Rafael López Aliaga was also named in the investigation. López Aliaga reportedly called for death in two separate incidents; in May 2021 he chanted "Death to communism! Death to Cerrón! Death to Castillo!" to supporters and at the Respect My Vote rally that was organized by Willax TV owner Erasmo Wong Lu on 26 June 2021, where the politician stated "Death to communism, get out of here, filthy communists, you have awakened the lion, to the streets!"

Other incidents
In July 2017, Phillip Butters of Willax's ComButters program made controversial comments about Afro-Ecuadorians on Ecuador's football team, stating "The Ecuadorians aren't black, they're mountain crocodiles" and that Felipe Caicedo "isn't human, he's a monkey. A gorilla." Willax suspended the program until Butters made an apology.

During the 2020 Peruvian protests, the Willax channel's Rey con Barba program broadcast images of homemade weapons purporting they were used in Peru when they were actually seized from Chilean protests; an attempt to discredit protests according to Perú.21.