QAP was a Colombian newscast aired between January 2, 1992 and December 31, 1997[1] on Canal A. It was produced by the programadora TV13.
In 1991, the journalists María Isabel Rueda and María Elvira Samper had the idea to create their own news production company. Soon, Enrique Santos Calderón (of El Tiempo newspaper and broadsheet),[2] businessman Julio Andrés Camacho and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez joined the project, with the goal of creating an independent newscast.
QAP had several major technological firsts. It was the first Colombian newscast to have microwave equipment and the first to broadcast from its own studios (as newly permitted in the call for bids, or licitación, of 1991).[3]
QAP ended in New Year's Eve 1997 (Wednesday, December 31), as a result of changes in the television law that removed the extensibility of the original six-year contract (the original contract called for six years with an option to extend for another six). Because of the independence of the newscast, García Márquez was convinced that the law was written specifically to take QAP off the air. In the end, a new licitación occurred that year, and QAP opted not to participate (retracting its original proposal);[4] its directors found that the impartiality needed for QAP to win in this new bidding cycle was lacking.
Inés María Zabaraín was the main presenter for QAP during its run on air.
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