Miami (February 27, 2012)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today recognized a decision by Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa to pardon convicted journalists of the newspaper El Universo and the authors of the book “El Gran Hermano” (Big Brother), but it noted that there remains the precedent of a sentence that seriously harms press freedom and free speech in the South American country.
During a ceremony this morning at the Carondelet Palace, after explaining in detail the criminal proceedings that had been taken against the executives of El Universo and the paper’s former opinion page editor, the President of Ecuador announced his decision to “pardon the accused, granting them remission of their sentences that they deservedly received,” and at the same time said that he would desist from “the lawsuit that I proposed against the authors of the book ‘El Gran Hermano’.”
IAPA President Milton Coleman, senior editor of The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., said that the announcement was good news, as the journalists would not be going to prison, there would be no risk that a media outlet would be shut down given the seriousness on a multi-million-dollar fine, and that no action would be taken against the journalists who wrote a book of denunciation.
“What the Ecuadorean people cannot lose sight of is that there will continue the precedent of a president coercing his country’s press with legal threats,” Coleman said. He added, “Press freedom is an inherent human right and it does not exist simply because a president might want to grant it as a special favor.”
The remission of the conviction implies that the president’s pardon applies only to the punishment, however the court sentencing of the journalists remains in place as ruled by the National Court of Justice.
For his part, the chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gustavo Mohme, said that while “the pardon is a development that alleviates a situation that is very prejudicial for journalists and El Universo, the fact that President Correa has indicated that ‘there is a pardon but it will not fall into oblivion,’ invites us to think that there is an attitude of continuing this prosecution of those who think differently or criticize public officials.”
Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, added, “Beyond the pardon what will be important is the procedural path that those involved will take, as on this sentence remaining firm the act of serious harm to press freedom and free speech remains.”
On February 16 the National Court of Justice upheld the sentencing to three years in prison of Carlos, César and Nicolás Pérez, executives of the Guayaquil newspaper El Universo, and Emilio Palacio, the paper’s former opinion page editor, and payment of $40 million damages in a lawsuit brought by President Correa claiming moral damage. The suit had been filed on March 21, 2011 over a column by Palacio in which he warned the president that he could be charged with crimes against humanity for having ordered open fire at a hospital during a police revolt on September 30, 2010.
On February 22 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights requested the Ecuadorean government to take precautionary steps in favor of the three El Universo executives and former opinion page editor, suspending “immediately the effects of the sentence so as to guarantee the right to freedom of expression.” In addition, it had called a meeting for March 28 with the objective of receiving information on the adoption of such measures.
On February 7 Juan Carlos Calderón and Chistian Zurita, co-authors of the “El Gran Hermano” book, were ordered to pay $2 million in damages to President Correa in a libel suit. In the book the two journalists denounced the award of unlawful and privileged contracts by the Ecuadorean government and the president’s eldest brother, Fabricio Correa.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
