Journalists, lawyers, academics and human rights activists from Ecuador have announced the formation of the Democratic Group for the Reforms of the Organic Law of Communication (LOC).
Freedom of expression advocates are looking for answers after a British journalist hoping to cover the World Trade Organization conference in Buenos Aires was deported from Argentina. At dawn on Dec. 8, Sally Burch was sent back to Quito, Ecuador where she works as executive-editor at Agencia Latinoamericana de Información. According to the Guardian, she was included on a list of 63 people banned from attending the conference from Dec. 10 to 13.
Three Latin American journalists appear on the Committee to Protect Journalist’s (CPJ) annual census of journalists imprisoned around the world. Guatemalan Jerson Antonio Xitumul Morales, Ecuadoran Enrique Rosales Ortega and Venezuelan Braulio Jatar are three of the 262 journalists imprisoned around the world, according to the census, which was published Dec. 13.
“Innocent.” These were the words Ecuadorian journalist Martín Pallares used to summarize the judge’s decision in a July 3 hearing for a suit filed against the journalist by former President Rafael Correa. The ex-leader, who was not present at the hearing, sued Pallares on June 5 in response to an article he wrote.
When Ecuador approved the Organic Law of Communication (LOC for its acronym in Spanish) in 2013, different organizations inside and outside the country expressed concern about the negative effects that the standard could have on freedom of expression.
Ecuador’s citizens went to the polls on Feb. 19 to elect a new president who will face a variety of challenges, not least among them, the reduction of a steep fiscal deficit.
Just days before Ecuador elects a new president, journalist Janet Hinostroza received an explosive device at her workplace.
With the aim of improving the conditions for the exercise of freedom of expression in Ecuador in the coming years, civil society organizations created a document that establishes the way to achieve this with the commitment of political actors and citizens.
Accompanied by her children, friends and supporter, Verónica Saráuz, wife of Ecuadorian journalist Fernando Villavicencio, certified before the Civil Judicial Unit of Quito a payment of US $47,306 in damages to Rafael Correa.
The main attacks on freedom of expression in Ecuador during 2016 were a result of the application of the controversial Organic Law of Communication, in force since 2013, according to the 2016 report from freedom of expression organization Fundamedios.