Posts Tagged ‘Ecuador’
September 15th, 2011
The
Ecuadorian Telecommunications Superintendency has announced it
would seek to punish seven radio broadcasters for a simultaneous broadcast of a debate on free speech without first notifying the authorities. On Ecuador’s Independence Day (10 August), Ecuadoradio, a broadcaster owned by the El Comercio group that publishes the eponymous newspaper, organised a debate between several radio broadcasters to discuss
President Rafael Correa‘s proposed
communications bill, which would limit business interests of media companies and promotes government regulation of such companies. On the same day, several major Ecuadorian newspapers ran the same cover, titled
“For Freedom of Expression”.
August 30th, 2011
After being sentenced to three years in prison for defamation, an
Ecuadorian journalist has
fled the country and sought refuge in Miami, according to newspaper reports.
Emilio Palacio of El Universo, who was sued for criticising President Rafael Correa, arrived in the United States on 24 August. “I’d have to be blind to not understand that they want me behind bars,” he said in a letter spread via
Twitter on 28 August. Meanwhile, El Universo has published a letter directed at President Correa asking him to stop the legal action against the journalist.
August 23rd, 2011
Columnist Emilio Palacio, who was last month
sentenced to three years in prison and fined 40 million USD for calling
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa a “dictator,”
presented a video to the district attorney on 18 August that he will use to appeal his sentence. Palacio presented an anonymous video in which Correa orders his agents to take control of police strikes and protests in September. In the video, Correa states that those responsible should be “shot in the chest for treason”. Palacio said the video contradicts the president’s original testimony that he did not order the military to fire on protesting police officers.
August 18th, 2011
Ecuadorian journalist
Peter Tavra Franco, who was sentenced to six months in prison for
libel on 19 July, now
faces a 10 million USD fine. The charges were presented by siblings Milton and Mónica Carrera, after Tavra published a story in the newspaper El Universo in February 2009 in which he narrates the plaintiff’s escape after being arrested for human trafficking from Ecuador into the United States. The Carreras claimed that the story’s publication caused “great damage to their honour, public image and prestige”, while Tavra asserted he had “used police documents” that established cause for the arrest. In a
separate case in the country, radio journalist
Freddy Aponte is facing a third conviction in a lawsuit for slander filed by the former mayor of Loja, José Bolívar Castillon.
August 15th, 2011
Several major
Ecuadorian newspapers ran the same cover on 10th August, titled “For Freedom of Expression”, in protest against President Rafael Correa’s increasing verbal and legal attacks on independent media. The President devoted 42 minutes of his
State of the Union speech to criticism of the press, and during his weekly TV broadcast also
urged the public to file lawsuits against what he called the “corrupt press”, name-checking reporter Jeanette Hinostroza for having commented on political negotiations related to appointments within the National Assembly.
March 4th, 2011
José Cadena, owner of the weekly “El Vocero” newspaper, based in northeastern Ecuador, faces a
lawsuit for publishing allegations of bribery and embezzlement against the local prefect, Orlando Grefa. The newspaper claims it has stopped receiving government advertisement contracts, and is no longer invited to local government press conferences.
February 4th, 2011
Jose Acacho, former director of La Voz de Arutam radio station has been
arrested in Macas on charges of terrorism and sabotage. A court has issued a preventive prison sentence against him, accusing him of broadcasting comments that instigated violence during the
indigenous protests on 30 September 2009.
July 12th, 2010
The Ecuadorian government
commissioned a series of television adverts which accuse the private media of distorting the truth. Local reports claim that President
Rafael Correa was deliberately portraying the private media in a negative light in anticipation of the final debate of the government’s telecommunications bill. The
Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) claims that the new laws will foster prior censorship and authorise the state to commission a political organ with the
power to punish the private media arbitrarily.
