Ecuador's National Council on Telecommunications (CONATEL in Spanish) unilaterally suspended a television station's broadcasting license in the southern Amazonian province of Morona Santiago, according to Fundamedios.
The Aug. 8 resolution addressed to licensee and local government official Felipe Marcelino Chumpi ended the television station Telesangay's broadcasting rights. The station was owned by the Morona Santiago government. Resolution RTV-589-15-CONATEL named non-compliance at the television station as the reason for the suspension.
Marcelino Chumpi, member of the opposition party Pachakutik, said in an Aug. 23 interview with EcuadoRadio that he was a victim of political persecution and that CONATEL's reasons for suspending the station's broadcasting rights were "technical and legal mumbo-jumbo." According to Chumpi, there were inconsistencies in the rationalization behind the suspension. One of the two experts reviewing the case said that the station complied with protocol; the other did not agree, reported the newspaper El Universo.
Chumpi suggested that political events like the Sept. 30 police protests and the recent May 7 referendum could have influenced the government's decision to suspend the station's license and use the broadcasting frequency to "put on a propaganda show."
