Ecuador

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WHEREAS on September 30, during an uprising by the police and some members of the Air Force against President Rafael Correa, the right to freedom of expression and of information was violated on all the news media’s being ordered to suspend broadcasts and to re-broadcast in an official hookup “without interruption and for an indefinite time”; WHEREAS on that and subsequent days journalists with privately- and publicly-owned news media were attacked; WHEREAS there is a danger that the right to due process may be violated in the investigations into the events concerning the September 30 insubordination; WHEREAS the Ecuadoran Presidency, citing security reasons, has decided to exclude information in its web page targeting government officials, thus violating the Law on Free Access to Information; WHEREAS in the broadcasts of the World Soccer Cup state funds were used to start a campaign to discredit privately-owned media; WHEREAS verbal attacks on the press by Ecuador’s President continued during these last six months; WHEREAS the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Watch have made fundamental observations about the bill for a Communication Law awaiting debate in the National Assembly WHEREAS Principle 5 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states “Prior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press” ao livre fluxo informativo e as limitações ao livre exercício e movimentação dos jornalistas se opõem diretamente à liberdade de imprensa” THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to urge the Ecuadoran government to respect the full exercise of freedom of expression and of information, so that there is no recurrence of the “for an indefinite time and without interruption” hookups and that it restore the full validity of the Law on Access to Information; to call on the government to cease using state funds in campaigns to discredit privately-owned media; to urge the National Assembly to take into account the observations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Watch concerning the bill for a Communication Law; to ask the judiciary to observe due process in the investigation into the September 30 events.

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