IAPA notes IACHR report on Ecuador coincides with its own view
IAPA notes IACHR report on Ecuador coincides with its own view
It also echoes Fundamedios criticism of Twitter for inaction over censorship
MIAMI, Florida (April 25, 2017)— The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) finds the criticism regarding the lack of freedom of expression in Ecuador, expressed in the annual report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), consistent with its position on the deterioration of press freedom in the South American country.
the IACHR report, issued on Wednesday, criticized the Rafael Correa government for its systematic stigmatization of journalists, human rights defenders and non-governmental organizations through legal actions, such as enactment of the Communication Law, which has become a weapon to generate a climate to intimidate the privately-owned and independent press.
Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, welcomed the IACHR report, saying, “it coincides with our ongoing denunciations of the Ecuadorean government,” especially the new press law and the Superintendence of Information and Communication (Supercom) which has served “to impose censorship, disguised as the far-fetched figure of ‘democratization of communication.’”
Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, recalled that the IAPA asked the government “to abstain from using the law to punish media and the juridical apparatus to criminalize journalists and media in reprisal for their editorial stances.”
The most recent IAPA report on the state of press freedom in Ecuador gives an account of stiff sanctions applied to the newspaper Extra for not rectifying what the paper regarded as important to report on, the fine of more than 100,000 dollars imposed on the newspaper El Universo for a caricature of Correa and other fines on privately-owned media and companies. The Supercom has not taken the same action against government- and state-owned media.
Paolillo was more pessimistic about the future. Regarding this he mentioned the amendment of the Penal Code which makes crimes committed through the press criminal offenses, in contravention of the current trend to decriminalize defamation as dictated by the current case law of the Inter-American Human Rights Court and international agreements on freedom of expression.
In another development, the IAPA echoed a denunciation by the Ecuadorean organization Fundamedios of the Correa government, which was directed at the Ares Rights Company and Twitter. Regarding Ares Rights, Fundamedios expressed displeasure at actions taken in favor of censoring opinions and statements critical of the President, and Twitter for being passive in the face of the censorship to which users criticizing Correa have been victims of.
The censorship, according to Fundamedios, arises from the stance of the government concerning the public statements made by President Correa each Saturday in his weekly Enlace Ciudadano (Citizen Hookup) broadcast. Fundamedios criticizes the fact that the government acts against criticism of and opinions about official expressions, which are nothing else but public information to which every Ecuadorean has a right.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
FUENTE: nota.texto7
