On Tuesday, July 31, the Ecuadorian magazine Vanguardia was once again raided as a public official from the Ministry of Labor Relations who confiscated the magazine's computers, furniture, and equipment. During the raid, the journalists of the magazine, which opposes President Rafael Correa's government, were not allowed to back up or save their research, reported the news outlet Voz de América and the newspaper El Comercio.
On Saturday, July 28, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said that official government advertising will be withheld from several private news media outlets that have accused his administration of damaging freedom of expression in Ecuador.
On Thursday, July 19, the Constitutional Court of Ecuador suspended its session scheduled to analyze the legality of the controversial Democracy Code, a regulation pushed by President Rafael Correa that regulates press coverage during electoral campaigns.
The government of Ecuador has received various criticisms in the last few days due to what Reporters Without Borders has called an excess of presidential attacks on opposition journalists for closing several media outlets.
Ecuador is one of countries in Latin America with the worst problems in practicing freedom of expression due to President Rafael Correa's repeated attacks on the private and independent press in the country.
The publisher of the Ecuadorian newspaper El Universo said that he is considering filing a lawsuit against Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa for the president's recent attacks against the journalist.
On Sunday, July 1, an Ecuadorian journalist was shot nine times and killed by two men on a motorcycle close to his house in the town of El Triunfo, about 38 miles from the coastal city of Guayaquil, reported the Ecuadorian NGO Fundamedios.
An Ecuadorian journalist received death threats via an anonymous phone call. The journalist and her family are currently under police protection after filing a complaint, the newspaper El Telégrafo reported.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sought political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where since December 2010 Assange has been under house arrest because Sweden requested his extradition after he was accused of sexually assaulting two women in Stockholm in August 2010, reported the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As the Guardian noted, Assange, facing potential espionage charges that could be brought by the United States, feels it would be harder to be extradited to the United States from Ecuador than from Sweden.
The Ecuadorian government confirmed that members of the presidential cabinet will no longer give interviews to private news media outlets, reported the Ecuadorian NGO Fundamedios. Aside from this attack on freedom of the press, Fundamedios also reported the closure of the ninth news media outlet in less than one month in the country.
In only 15 days, four radio broadcasters and two TV channels were closed in Ecuador, reported the news agency EFE. The Ecuadorian NGO Fundamedios reported that the closed news media outlets are the TV channels Telesangay (of the province of Morona Santiago), Lidervisión (from Napo), and the radios stations El Dorado (from Sucumbíos), Líder (from Napo), Pantera (from Pichincha), and Net (from Tungurahua), reported the news paper El Comercio.
On Saturday, June 9, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said that he is considering preventing public officials from granting interviews to for-profit, private news media, in an attempt to financing those families that own these news media outlets, reported the news agency EFE.