In a new punch thrown in the fight between Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa and the opposition media, the government announced that it had suspended El Universo newspaper’s presidential press credential for its alleged “failure to comply with constitutional provisions,” El Nacional reports.
El Universo reports that it learned of the move when its presidential correspondent was thrown out of the government palace for not having the correct credential. According to EFE, in practice, one doesn’t need a presidential credential to be in the press room as usually a media credential suffices.
The National Communications Department rejected El Universo’s attempt to renew its credential for not retracting a December 2010 article over the political use of the credentialing process, El Comercio explains.
President Correa is currently suing the editors of El Universo and one of its editorial writers for $80 million over a column that accused the president of giving orders to "fire at will" against a hospital during a police rebellion last September.
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.
