The crucial conditions for the exercise of freedom of expression have not improved. It is increasingly risky to carry out investigative journalism, as the persecution of the news media has increased in the last few months.
This is due to the disclosure made by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) about the so-called Panama Papers, information that has given rise so far to 24 investigations into alleged acts of corruption within the state petroleum company Petroecuador. To this is added the denunciation of the United States Department of Justice concerning bribes paid by Brazilian company Odebrecht in the country between 2007 and 2016.
Journalists Tania Tinoco (Ecuavisa), Janet Hinostroza (Teleamazonas), Ricardo Arques and Ánderson Boscán (newspaper Expreso) interviewed Hydrocarbons Minister Carlos Pareja Yannuzzelli, accused of money laundering. Their work was criticized by President Rafael Correa, who uses his airtime "Enlace Ciudadano" (Citizen Hookup) to question the media, journalists, politicians and members of the opposition.
Correa branded the interviews as "rubbish." The journalists and media said they did not know how the government had obtained without agreement unedited and private journalistic materials that had not yet been published.
The President also questioned the gathering of the opinions of some former presidential candidates concerning the matter and asked for a prompt response from the newspaper Expreso. The paper explained that it could not avoid reporting on items of public interest.
The media La Hora, El Universo, El Comercio and journalists Diego Oquendo, Alfonso Espinosa de los Monteros, Andrés Carrión also were victims of comments by Correa for alleged "mishandling of information" copying news by "the yellow press" and cariryng out "a dirt campaign." In addition, he described them as "corrupt," "rags," "traitors" and even tore them up in his broadcast Citizen Hookup No. 508 with the newspaper Expreso. The organization Fundamedios was accused of coming up with a plan to destabilize the current regime, spurred on by brothers Willliam and Roberto Isaías.
National networks are not 100% informative, as many are used to discredit authorities, analysts and journalists.
In response to videos placed on Twitter by Pareja Yannuzzelli the official version was shown on various TV channels. The same thing was done concerning indigenous protests opposing mining projects. Communication Minister Carlos Ochoa used that space to criticize Fundamedios and Ecuavisa for having gathered in a news item the details of the book "El delito de expresarte" (The Crime of Expressing Yourself).
The radio spaces also are being interrupted, such as that of ExaDemocracia, to accuse the media of "discrediting the frequency tendering process" which is carried out by the Agency of Regulation and Control of Telecommunications (Arcotel) and the Regulation and Development of Communication Council (Cordicom). Broadcasters Diego Oquendo and Gonzalo Rosero of Radio Visión and Democracia radio stations, respectively, believe that their frequencies "are at risk."
During recent months hacked were 25 journalists' Twitter accounts and eight Web sites. The reasons: electoral campaign, to silence media, discrediting and intimidation. El Comercio is the first print media outlet to be attacked.
The Superintendence of Information and Communication (Supercom) and the Communication Council (Cordicom) applied 31 financial fines, 16 rectifications, 23 obligatory responses, seven public apologies, 11 written admonitions and eight calls to attention. In addition there were recorded two seizures of equipment of radio stations ordered by the staff of the Agency of Regulation and Control of Telecommunications (Arcotel) and a raid on radio station La Voz de Arutam, located in Sucúa (Morona Santiago), following a court order requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office with the objective of obtaining evidence of citizens, among them Agustín W., that had incited armed resistance.
The segment most affected by these 79 disciplinary actions was that of radio (34), followed by the press (26), television (12) and journalists (7).
Radio stations such as Teleradio, Zapotillo, Kiruba, La Prensa, Planeta Canela, La Voz de Arutam were punished with payment of the equivalent of up to 10 basic salaries for reproducing "inappropriate" information, not handing over copies of programming and not identifying and classifying the contents. Only Radio Mágica received a written reprimand with the aim of improving its communication practices. On the other hand, Radio Scandalo and Soberana had to apologize publicly for discriminatory contents and "media lynching."
It has become customary to use the responses resource to interrupt spaces under the mandate of the Communication Law to broadcast or publish the official version. The mayor of Balas (El Oro), Manuel Pinto, Internal Revenue Service (SRI), Central Bank (BC), Ministry of Defense and the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) are some of those that have called for responses and rectifications from: Radio La Mejor, newspaper La Hora (4 sanctions), El Comercio and El Universo (31 sanctions). The latter two newspapers have done so in certain publications "under protest," considering that the offense was not that large.
In punishments applied to print media of note is that made to El Universo. It published under protest two responses and two rectifications on October 6, 8 and 10, 2016 and January 23, 2017 called for by state officials. The majority reached the newsroom previously drawn up and headlined. The newspaper noted that in each of the imposed terms it found itself obliged to publish them in order to avoid new fines by the Superintendence.
El Comercio had one publication under protest and La Hora received four during the analyzed time. Other media were punished with written reprimands and urged to improve their editorial practices, such as the fortnightly Horizonte, dailies Expreso, Pichinchano, El Nacional, El Norte, El Heraldo and the weekly papers Ecotel Press and La Verdad.
El Telégrafo was criticized for disseminating inappropriate content, while Canal Uno television was considered jointly responsible and told to improve its editorial practices regarding the death of a person. Supercom determined that the publicist, creator and host of the program "Hola Mauricio" must pay a fine equivalent to 10 basic salaries and ordered the suspension of the program.
There have been financial sanctions applied to television stations for violent content not appropriate for the time slot and lack of inter-cultural programming. These were Telecuatro Guayaquil C.A., RTS, Canal Uno, Teleamazonas and Color TV Canal 36.
Other relevant events:
On February 16 there arrived at the Teleamazonas plant in Quito a sealed envelope without a return address for journalist Janet Hinostroza. According to the police it was an "explosive." The incident led to the evacuation of all the media outlet's staff. She says that it was the second time in her journalistic career that she had received a threat.
The following day the Ecuador TV building in the north of Quito was evacuated for about 40 minutes due to there having been sent a warning that there had been received an envelope with suspicious contents, which was addressed to Ecuador TV journalist Mariuxi Mosquera. Members of the Intervention and Rescue Group (GIR) inspected the package and came to the conclusion that it was not an explosive artifact.
On October 21 journalist Enrique Rosales Ortega, an article writer with the newspaper El Universo, was sentenced to two years in prison and the payment of $15,000 in damages on a charge of libeling Aliziana PAIS Congresswoman Vanessa Fajardo, plus public apologies. He appealed to the provincial court.
El Universo reported that one of its journalists was required to erase two photos that he had taken of Vice President Jorge Glas during coverage of a Metallica concert. Glas had been attending the show accompanied by a 12-year-old child and numerous security guards.
Fernando Delgado, an Ecuavisa television cameraman, was wounded by a stone thrown at his head after being attacked by a gang in a Guayaquil neighborhood in covering an anti-drug operation. The RTS television news team was also present and attacked indirectly.
Following the February 19 elections within the framework of protests at the absence of official results an Ecuavisa cameraman and news photographer of El Comercio were verbally and physically attacked by a group of demonstrators. They recorded the moment at which 150 people smashed the parking garage of a building in Quito where the Democracy Institute operated.
Opposition leader and journalist Fernando Villavicencio, responsible for the investigative Web site Focus Ecuador, is also a target of those in power, facing trial on charge of libeling President Rafael Correa. He paid $44,301 of $47,307 in damages to the Executive Branch. Nevertheless, that same day that he complied with the court order preventive imprisonment was activated. Currently his family members are calling for his release.
The El Telégrafo Web site on March 10 published an analysis titled "Los profúgos como los 'electores'" (Deserters As 'Electors') that makes reference to the role of journalists during the elections. In that space questioned were the interviews made by El Universo and the online portals La República and Ecuadorenvivo with Pedro Delgado. According to El Telégrafo the media sanctify Delgado on the eve of the second round of elections.
An isolated event is the closure of the program "Celebra la Vida" (Celebrate Life) broadcast by Ecuador TV. Supposedly it went off the air due to "political retaliations." Thus said Mario Maldonado, host and producer of that program, who assured that this occurred because of his participation in the political movement Centro Democrático.
News editors also have been warned by government employees. On October 5 an official of the National Audit Office of the National Electoral Council warned the media that they cannot "direct interviews" and prompt candidates or presumed aspirants to pronounce and promote their government plans or to send messages to vote for them, while the superintendent of Market Power Control, Pedro Paez, accused the media of "manipulating and distorting information in line with their private interests."
A leaking of documents carried out by the group of whistleblowers Ecuador Transparente reveals that the Ecuadorean government paid for the handling of campaigns of hounding of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, former Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression Catalina Botero, Fundamedios and Mónica Chuji, former Communication Minister.
Also, contemplated are contracts for the handling of accounts on social media for propaganda and even a troll center to influence public opinion and harass opponents.
There were also registered possible breakups, such as that of the civil society organization Corporación Acción Ecológica that has been at the point of disappearing. This after the Interior Ministry asked the Environment Ministry to proceed to the "immediate disbandment" of that social organization, considering that pronouncements made on social media in rejection of mining operations in Morona Santiago go against the internal security of the state and disturb public peace. On January 6 the Acción Ecológica organization presented its deposition and on January 12 the Environment Ministry decided to take a step back, dismissing the disbandment request.
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