By Ingrid Bachmann
The debate over criminalization of opinions and information was swept under the rug again in Ecuador. The lawsuit against the opinion editor of El Universo newspaper, Emilio Palacio, ended in surprise after a high government official withdrew the libel charges against him, El Comercio and EFE report.
Palacio had been sentenced to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine for a column about Camilo Samán, executive director of the government's National Financial Corp. (CFN). Palacio had pointed out that the true instigator of the trial against him is President Rafael Correa.
The newspaper Hoy warns that the case serves to demonstrate that ending up in jail is a reality in the work of media and journalists, especially amid the
government's tense relations with media.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
