In the most recent friction between the media and the Ecuadorian government, several security guards and an official blocked a group of reporters from covering a meeting between the Minister of Labor Relations and the National University at Loja Workers Union in the southern city of Loja, on Nov. 12.
Fighting a court order, the Ecuadorian newspaper La Hora published an apology to the government in its Nov. 14 edition, according to the newspaper El Diario.
The Inter American Press Association said a court order barring a newspaper in Ecuador from reporting on a lawsuit against it brought by a government official was a "serious attack on freedom of the press,".
An Ecuadorian journalist claimed she received death threats after presenting a series of reports on drug consumption and carrying guns in schools in the city of Guayaquil, reported the Associated Press.
Sympathizers of Ecuador's President Rafael Correa protested last week outside the María Moors Cabot Prizes ceremony in opposition to Columbia University's decision to give the Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo an honorary citation for its defense of freedom of expression, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported.
"Ecuador is in the midst of a press freedom crisis," International Press Institute (IPI) Deputy Director Anthony Mills said on Tuesday, Oct. 23, on the group's website. Mills' words were part of a press release announcing the final report of IPI's press freedom mission to the Andean country from May 7 to 11.
"Ecuador is in the midst of a press freedom crisis," International Press Institute (IPI) Deputy Director Anthony Mills said on Tuesday, Oct. 23, on the group's website. Mills' words were part of a press release announcing the final report of IPI's press freedom mission to the Andean country from May 7 to 11.
Fundamedios, a press organization, accused the Ecuadorian government of waging a smear campaign against it and private media in the Andean country, according to a statement on its website.
An Ecuadorian newspaper was fined $500 for publishing photographs of underage children with President Rafael Correa, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish). The judge for Children and Adolescents fined the director of the newspaper El Universo, Carlos Pérez Barriga, on Oct. 2, according to IPYS.
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) executive director Joel Simon testified at a briefing on press freedom in Latin America that violence and legal harassment are the biggest obstacles journalists face in the region, according to CPJ’s website.
A journalist from Ecuador was threatened by two men who burst into his newsroom on Sept. 23, reported the Ecuadorian NGO Fundamedios. Reporter Alejandro Escudero works for the weekly Independiente in the city of Nueva Loja, a northeastern province in Sucumbíos, the organization said.
Ecuador's Electoral Court (TCE in Spanish) sentenced a magazine to pay $80,000 for publishing an editorial on Sept. 26, reported the newspaper El Universo.