With less than a week left before a popular vote on judicial reforms and press regulation, President Rafael Correa continued to rail against the media, saying they “deceive, lie,” and are the biggest opposition to the referendum, AFP reports.
Ten questions will appear on the May 7 ballot, including a constitutional amendment to limit bank ownership in media outlets and a communication law that creates a council for regulating media content.
“The biggest foes of the citizen revolution in this campaign have been media outlets,” Correa said, during his weekly address on April 30, quoted by Expreso. “TV channels have turned into shameless campaign headquarters with antennas,” he said.
El Universo, a newspaper that is facing an $80 million defamation suit from the president, published an editorial calling on voters to be on the lookout for attempts to “steal” the election.
Correa has a tense relationship with the media and often refers to opposition newspapers as corrupt propaganda.
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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.
