By Ingrid Bachmann
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned an “aggressive" television ad campaign by the government of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa against independent news media.
According to IAPA, the ads, which aired during World Cup soccer games, accused the press and radio and television stations of "distorting the truth, attempting to return to running the country as the strongmen and creating a dictatorship under certain media."
The country's newspapers rejected the criticisms in the ads, and in letters to the Secretary of Communication of the Presidency they demanded to know specifically which media outlets were alluded to in the ads, reported EFE and La Hora.
In a letter, the publisher of the newspaper El Comercio warned that such "offensive propaganda" could open the door to "all sorts of controls and sanctions against freedom of expression."
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.
