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World Report - Ecuador

• Area: 283,561 sq. km.
• Population: 14,000,000.
• Language: Spanish.
• Head of state: Rafael Correa since January 2007

Attacks on journalists and polarisation of the media are both increasing. Press offences continue to be punishable by imprisonment and several journalists have been given jail sentences on criminal "insult" charges. Despite positive aspects, a proposed communication law has sparked controversy.

Backed by President Rafael Correa and adopted by referendum in September 2008, the new constitution reaffirms the right to communication and freedom of expression. It also reaffirms the right to pluralist news and information and, on those grounds, forbids the creation of any "direct or indirect oligopoly or monopoly in the ownership of media and usage of frequencies" (article 17-3).

The president's communication bill has proved controversial. Submitted to the National Assembly on 21 November 2009, it could be adopted in May 2010. The most contentious points are the creation of a new legal status for journalists and the definition of news and information that is liable to "threaten national security and public order" and therefore subject to severe penalties. It implies possible censorship.

A few months after being sworn in, President Correa created a national public television station, which Ecuador previously lacked. A radio station and, thanks to the acquisition of El Telégrafo, a newspaper subsequently completed the array of state media. Nearly three years later, on 6 April 2010, a score of El Telégrafo journalists resigned citing excessive government pressure. The state also manages three other TV stations: TC Televisión, Gamavisión and CN3. The first two were confiscated from businessmen convicted of embezzlement. Overall, relations continue to be tense between the Carondelet Palace (the seat of government) and the privately-owned media, which often manage to upset the president.

The growing polarisation has led to an increase in displays of hostility towards journalists. There have been more than a dozen attacks on media employees since the start of 2010, some of them violent. The Quito correspondent of the pan-Latin American TV station Telesur, Elena Rodríguez, was the target of an exceptionally brutal attack on 16 September 2009. An anonymous letter confirmed that the attack was linked to her work as a journalist.

As for the opposition media, the privately-owned TV station Teleamazonas narrowly avoided being stripped of its frequency. Initially convicted in April 2009 of broadcasting bull-fight footage outside of permitted time, it was convicted a month later for reporting the existence of a clandestine vote-counting centre and possible fraud during the 26 April general election. It was the target of similar proceedings for the third time in June for a report about the environmental impact of a project by the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA in the Gulf of Guayaquil. The Telecommunications Supervisory Authority ordered its signal suspended for three days on 22 December 2009 for "broadcasting unverified information."

Defamation and insult continue to be punishable by imprisonment. Shortly after completing a prison sentence for insult, Milton Chacaguasay Flores, the managing editor of the weekly La Verdad, was jailed again on 9 July 2009 after being convicted on a similar charge. He was finally freed in early 2010.

Updated : April 2010

Topics: Freedom of information, Freedom of expression,