ECUADOR

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WHEREAS various reports to the IAPA General Assembly have noted with concern that there are criminal laws in effect in Ecuador against the offense of “desacato” (insult). WHEREAS on May 10, 2007, President Rafael Correa Delgado filed a criminal complaint for “desacato” against Francisco Vivanco, president of the editorial board of the daily La Hora saying that the paper’s main editorial on March 15, 2007 contained accusations that constituted “non slanderous insults against the person who holds the Presidency of the Republic…” WHEREAS on June 8, 1007, the prosecutor’s office of Pichincha accepted the president’s complaint and opened an investigation of Francisco Vivanco, during which it has slowly produced certain evidence only from experts of the National Police, an agency dependent on the president, and it has ignored Vivanco’s requests to present evidence; he could be sentenced to two years in jail for this offense WHEREAS in June legislator Diego Ordóñez introduced a bill in the National Congress that would repeal the crime of “desacato” WHEREAS in July more than a thousand citizens presented a suit challenging the constitutionality of “desacato” laws in Ecuador to the Constitutional Court WHEREAS When he filed the complaint against the president of La Hora, President Correa himself said he did not agree with these laws, but that as long as they were in effect they could be applied WHEREAS the IAPA on June 4, 2007 expressed concern at the dispute with the private shareholders of El Telégrafo over the May 2, 2007 administrative order of the Companies Oversight Division which, without prior legal process, held to be without basis increases in capital by private shareholders of El Telégrafo S.A. in August 2002, September 2006 and April 2007, instigated by shareholder and former editor of the newspaper Carlos Navarrete, as a consequence of which the newspaper came under control of the government WHEREAS on June 7, 2007 while the El Telégrafo shareholders general meeting was being held, without a legal order, the former editor of El Telégrafo was evicted by police from its plant WHEREAS Principle 10 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states, “No news medium nor journalist may be punished for publishing the truth or criticizing or denouncing the government” THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to urge the Justice Ministry in the person of the Attorney General and the Pichincha prosecutor’s office that is pursuing the case, to apply international treaties and the decision of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, and dismiss the complaint filed by the president against Francisco Vivanco and declare the “desacato” laws invalid to encourage the Constitutional Court to hear the citizens’ suit and declare “desacato” laws unconstitutional and against human rights to urge the National Constituent Assembly that the constitution and laws to be issued, compile and consecrate the people’s civil rights, especially the rights of freedom of thought, expression and press, respecting the commitments contained in international treaties accepted by Ecuador to repudiate the use of police to evict former editor Carlos Navarrete to insist that the legal dispute with the private shareholders of El Telégrafo be resolved with full transparency and that the former editor of the newspaper, Carlos Navarrete, be given assurances of due process.

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