Ecuador: President Correa’s Tumultuous Relationship With the Media · Global Voices
Milton Ramirez

After last year's police uprising, Ecuadoreans have been eager to find out who was responsible for the events that took place on that September 30, 2010, when the country was thrown into chaos during a police strike to oppose changes to a law which reduced benefits for various public entities.
Ecuadorean courts have decided on the matter, “declaring six police officers guilty of crimes against the security of the state.” A hearing to appeal the resolution [es] is in progress, but the conflict between President Rafael Correa and the Ecuadorian media is far from resolved.
President Correa with a copy of El Universo. Image by Flickr user Presidencia de la República de Ecuador (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).
Widening breach
The breach between Correa and the press has widened now that Correa has been favored by the  Fifteenth Court of Criminal Guarantees of the Guayas province in a defamation trial against Emilio Palacio, one of the most recognized journalists in the country and now former chief editor of El Universo newspaper.
According to Correa's lawyer, Palacio's editorial [es] imputed to his client [es] allegations of murder, crimes against humanity and the ordering of troops to open fire on the hospital where Correa was being held on September 30, 2010.
Judge Juan Paredes sentenced [es] the journalist and three El Universo executives to three years in prison and a total of $40 million USD in fines. After learning about the judge's decision, Fernando Alvarado, Press Secretary of the Presidency, declared [es] that free speech is guaranteed in the country and that the government is not persecuting the media. Furthermore, Correa declared that the judge's ruling was correct because it “criminalizes freedom of extortion, not freedom of expression” [es].
Buró [es], a  web site specializing in political management, public relations and  communication strategy, points out that the newspaper questioned the  unusual speed with which the Ecuadorean courts acted: “In 4 months the  trial of El Universo had 5 judges and the decision was resolved in less  than a day.”
This was not the first time an Ecuadorean journalist had been sued for his or her commentary: the television show ‘La Television‘ was sued by former Culture Minister Sandra Correa (no relation to the president), and journalist  Fredy Vidal Aponte [es] was sued by former Loja Major Jose Bolivar Castillo. Palacio himself had previously been sued for libel, by Camilo Samán, president of the National Finance Corporation (CFN).
Nor was it the first time that Correa's government has clashed with the media. As Amnesty International explains:
The latest case comes amid mounting concern about restrictions on  freedom of expression in Ecuador. A referendum in May included a  question about restrictions on news media ownership and creation of a  government oversight body to review “excesses” in media content.
After the legal decision was made public there were innumerable reactions in Ecuador and abroad. The Ecuadorian Association of Newspaper Editors (AEDEP), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CIDH), and others are challenging the verdict.
Former ad hoc CIDH's judge Rey Cantor [es] expressed concern about the legal process followed in the case, saying that human rights were in fact violated on two counts: through the violation of  freedom of expression and through the absence of due process  supported by independent judges. Cantor also stated that the CIDH has established that vague and ambiguous libel standards cannot be used to impose liability on someone who is referred to  a public  official.
Furthermore, as The Economist’s Americas View blog reports:
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the ruling was “contrary to regional freedom of expression standards” and would produce “self-censorship and a notable chilling effect that impacts not only the individuals convicted but Ecuadorean society as a whole.”
Ecuador's secretary of communications, ﻿﻿Fernando Alvarado Espinel, responded in a letter to The Economist, stating that:
“In Ecuador, as in many other countries, a citizen’s right to defend his  honour and reputation is protected by the constitution. Freedom of  expression is not a free pass to supplant another’s right to defend his  dignity.”
Bloggers react to ruling
Director and screenwriter Carlos Andrés Vera analyzes the language Palacio used in his column. At Polifiction [es],  his personal blog, Vera writes that after reading the piece several times  he concluded that the journalist did insult the president, but that both the lawsuit  and the sentence were disproportionately harsh.
To José Fernando Gómez of Desde mi trinchera [es], the muzzling of the Ecuadorean press suggests a regime of dictatorship, and he explains why Ecuadoreans need to be vigilant:
Todos sabemos que las dictaduras, aunque le den centavos a los pobres para tenerlos de su lado, enriquece a las cabezas. En la Rusia comunista, sólo los del Politburó vivían bien. En la pobre Cuba el pueblo se muere de hambre mientras los Castro y su grupo viven opulentamente. Hemos visto videos y fotos de cómo viven los magnates de los países en los que los Gobernantes tienen tiempo en el poder, como vivía la familia Batista en la Cuba pre comunista, Sadam y tantos otros más.
As Global Voices previously reported, at least five national newspaper ran the very same cover story on August 10, Ecuador's Independence Day. Adam Isacson explained:
Major Ecuadorian newspapers ran the same cover today —  “For Freedom of  Expression” — to protest President Rafael Correa’s  increasing verbal and  legal attacks on the independent media. The President devoted 42 minutes to his State of the Union speech today to criticism of the press.
Fausto Lupera Martínez  at El Ecuatoriano [es] refers to this State of the Union address where, on every August 10, the president must inform the National Assembly about the government's compliance with the National Development Plan and other objectives. He says Correa violated the Constitution because he delegated that part of his State of the Union speech to the Vice-President and other ministers, and dedicated a great part of his address to discussing the media and once again mentioning last year's police uprising.
Roque Planas from the Council of the Americas explains that “Correa says he offered to withdraw the lawsuit if the paper ran a correction, but the paper refused. Instead, El Universo offered to publish a statement from Correa, but he refused, too.”
The blog  Guayaquil Insumiso [es] discusses  cases where the Ecuadorean media spreads “gossip” and doesn't verify  their sources:
Los medios se comportan como humanos, porque están manejados por  humanos y en nuestra cultura estamos acostumbrados a difundir rumores  como si fuesen verdades confirmadas. Que el periodismo político  en Ecuador se maneje de la misma manera, lo hace digno de estar en un  circo, porque a la final representa lo que somos; y todos somos dignos  de estar en un circo.
A recent poll showed that President Correa has a 74.9 per cent approval rating, but this might change after Ecuadoreans learn that Palacio is unable to pay the fine and will lose his house as a consequence of this ruling.
Palacio has not retracted what he wrote in the aforementioned article, nor has President Rafael Correa formally accepted a promised amendment [es] by Carlos, Cesar and Nicolas Perez, owners and managers of El Universo  in Guayaquil.