Ecuador

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WHEREAS online media such as Focus, Mil Hojas, Plan V and 4Pelagatos received systematic computer attacks that caused them to be blocked for days and that their social media accounts were temporarily suspended


WHEREAS several users' Twitter accounts were denounced by the National Communication Secretariat (Secom) for the "illegal" use of images and extracts of the presidential "citizens hookups" known as "sabatinas"


WHEREAS through national television and radio networks there are insulted, harassed and persecuted journalists, politicians and news media, as has occurred with programs such as "Contacto Directo" (Direct Contect) of Ecuavisa, "Los Desayunos 24" (the 24 Breakfasts) of Teleamazonas and "Revista Informativa" (News Magazine) of Radio ExaDemocracia and with journalists such as Janeth Hinostroza, Gonzalo Rosero, Alfredo Pinoargote and Diego Oquendo


WHEREAS in the "Saturday hookups" both President Rafael Correa and Vice President Jorge Glas have continued harassing and discrediting independent news media and their employees, and have accused them of taking part in "bland" coup d'états against their government and in political campaigns of opposition pre-candidates


WHEREAS the Information and Communication Superintendence (Supercom) and the Communication Council (Cordicom), shielded under an anti-democratic regressive communication law, keep an eye on, punish and admonish news media with pecuniary fines, demands for rectifications, obligatory responses, required apologies, written warnings and calls to attention


WHEREAS it is increasingly risky to carry out investigative journalism; an example of this is that after Teleamazonas and journalist Janeth Hinostroza questioned in various reports inverse corporative bidding for medicines that was made by the National Public Contracting Service President Rafael Correa said on August 6 this channel and the journalist had committed "media lynching," the consequence of which was that Supercom issued a double penalty two days later


WHEREAS the government of Ecuador is going ahead with a frequencies contest that is regarded as a mechanism of political pressure on radio and television media and the Telecommunications Control Agency has prevented public viewing of the process


WHEREAS the Principle 5 of the Declaration of Chapultepec says: "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.".


THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES


to call once more on the government of President Rafael Correa to cease the attacks on reporters, editorial writers and independent news media


to reject the persecution of online media and critical cyber activists by the governmental administration and to denounce to international public opinion that in Ecuador there no end to the political harassment of social media and that there have been lost the guarantees of freedom of expression in all the country's spaces and news media


to require that there be restored the frequency bidding, that the process be transparent and there be guaranteed independent observation by the citizenry


to denounce to international public opinion that in Ecuador there is maintained and strengthened a camouflaged system of censorship that has as its objective the silencing of independent journalism and the removal of critical content from the privately-owned press


To urge the candidates in the February 2017 general elections to pledge to repeal the Communications Act, one of the most repressive legal instruments in the hemisphere, which is intended to destroy critical journalism and the independent press and to curtail press freedom and freedom of expression.

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