Ecuador

WHEREAS Ecuadoreans voted by majority to approve a new constitution with criteria that could be very dangerous for the free practice of journalism; among other things, the Ecuadorean Constitution says that “the law shall regulate the prevalence of contents for educational, cultural and information purposes in the media outlets’ programs” and “that the Administration shall make a public policy of communication” WHEREAS the Ecuadorean government recently seized five television channels which means that it controls stations reaching most of the television audience WHEREAS principle 1 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says, “No people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press. The exercise of this freedom is not something authorities grant, it is an inalienable right of the people” THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to demand that the government, through its majority in the new legislative committee, make sure that new laws that will be issued to put the new Constitution into effect, and especially the expected Communications Law, provide for unrestricted press freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of information without any restriction in the terms stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Pact of San José, which Ecuador has signed, the existing freedom of information law and the Declaration of Chapultepec that several Ecuadorean heads of state have signed to demand of the Ecuadorean government that any administrative instruction to the police and authorities in general does not block, but instead guarantees, the free and normal work of the press in covering news and events of public importance to remind the Ecuadorean government of its commitment not to make political use of the media outlets seized and to demand that the legal procedures be speeded up so these media outlets can be returned to the private sector and their rightful owners through the appropriate and transparent public bidding process according to the law to ask the president of the IAPA to coordinate a mission to Ecuador to evaluate the situation of press freedom.