Ecuador

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed alarm at a decision by Ecuador's highest court that has paved the way for a constitutional amendment that would categorize the news media as a "public service" subject to government regulation. The Constitutional Court announced on October 31 that the proposed amendment should be decided by the National Assembly rather than by referendum, which...

The Superintendence of Information and Communication (Supercom) sanctioned on October 6 the TV station Canal Uno with two fines, a total of USD 10,200 dollars, and issued a written reprimand for allegedly violating multiple articles of the Communications Law (LOC), concerning the reporting of restricted information about children, teenagers and ethical standards, according to Fundamedios - Andean...

The repressive effects of Ecuador’s one-year-old communications law can be seen in a regulator’s decision to fine a newspaper just days after the daily said the law was the reason it was shuttering its print edition, the International Press Institute (IPI) said Tuesday. Ecuador’s Communication and Information Superintendence Office (SUPERCOM), which the communications law created to monitor...

Next month, supporters of Ecuador’s Organic Communications Law will mark the first anniversary of its passage, but many journalists say that there will be little to celebrate because the law has hindered press freedom on numerous occasions. With the approval of this law, the government created the Communication and Information Superintendence Office (SUPERCOM) to monitor, enforce and regulate...

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the decision by Ecuador's media oversight agency on Friday to use the country's communications law to sanction the leading local daily El Universo over a critical cartoon. The agency fined the daily and demanded that the cartoonist "correct" the cartoon within 72 hours, according to news reports. "It has been apparent for some time that Ecuador's new...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned the closure of a provincial Ecuadoran radio station and called on local regulators to allow the station to resume broadcasting. Voz de la Selva Esmeralda Oriental Canela radio, known for its critical coverage of local authorities, had appealed an order to close the station on bogus administrate violations, according to CPJ research. The...

Sports journalists Pedro Anibal Fernández, Ramón Morales Verduga and Héctor Barre were attacked on March 19 by fans of the Portoviejo University Sports League (LDUP) at the end of a football match at the Reales Tamarindo stadium in the town of Portoviejo, capital of the coastal province of Manabí, located 329 km southwest of Quito. The journalists said that at the end of the match between LDUP and...

Ecuador's President Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado has filed a lawsuit against Juan Carlos Calderón and Christian Zurita, investigative journalists and authors of the book Gran Hermano (Big Brother). The lawsuit is based on the book's content, a journalistic investigation into contracts signed between the president's brother, Fabricio Correa, and the State. According to the Pichincha Judiciary's...

José Cadena, owner of the weekly El Vocero in the Amazonian province of Sucumbíos, in northeastern Ecuador, is facing a lawsuit filed before the Prosecutor's Office by the local prefect, Orlando Grefa, who has accused the newspaper of damaging his image and his honour after it published allegations made against him by Vice-Prefect Oswaldo Calvopiña. Cadena told Fundamedios that the lawsuit was...

Ecuadoran authorities interrupted a news program critical of the Ecuadoran government on Monday to air an official rebuttal, a practice that has become standard in the administration of President Rafael Correa, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists. CPJ called on Ecuadoran authorities to stop this practice, which has a chilling effect on public discourse. Last week during...