H.E. Rafael Correa Delgado
Constitutional President
Palacio de Carondelet
Quito
Republic of Ecuador
Fax: (011.593.2) 58.07.35
Your Excellency:
The Overseas Press Club of America would like to endorse the declaration of the Inter-American Press Association that the Communications Law placed before your National Assembly is a clear threat to the freedom of information in Ecuador.
Taken at face value, the proposed law might not seem overly threatening. Requiring the media to publish within forty-eight hours a reply by anyone who feels his honor has been impugned, or prohibiting the media’s use of information acquired from hidden sources, or creating a National Communications and Information Council, are objectionable as they stand. But these measures become extremely dangerous when set in the context of what has been happening to the media in Ecuador, namely:
You have accused the press of being your greatest adversary, and have referred to the “corrupt press” as being “conspirators” and “destabilizing. Your government has taken over two television stations and put people loyal to your government in charge. In addition, the Teleamazonas network has been the subject of two investigations and faces the possibility of being shut down for ninety days. Although the trend in the Western hemisphere is to de-criminalize slander, Ecuador continues to jail journalists accused of “insult.” After serving six months in prison on a charge of libeling a judge, journalist, Milton Nelson Chacaguasay, was jailed for another four months for slandering a former cabinet minister. Slander and libel cases belong in civil, not criminal, courts. Journalists critical of your government have been subject to multiple death threats and random shots. On December 3, a small bomb exploded in front of the Teleamazonas office. While it is true you condemned this latter attack and ordered an investigation, nevertheless, it would seem the government’s strong hostility towards the press may have encouraged these attacks.
While democratic governments very often face a critical domestic press, and the criticism may at times seems irresponsible and inaccurate, that can not be a reason for gagging journalists. The legitimate role of the press is to hold governments to account. How else can the public know what government officials are doing if the press does not act as a watchdog?
We sincerely hope that the Communications Law will not be enacted.
Respectfully yours,
Jeremy Main
Kevin McDermott
Co-chairs – Freedom of the Press Committee
cc:
H.E. Luis Benigno Gallegos Chiriboga
Ambassador of Ecuador to the U.S.A.
Embassy of the Republic of Ecuador
2535 Fifteenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
Fax: (202) 667.3482
The Permanent Representative
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Ecuador
to the United Nations
866 United Nations Plaza, Room 516
New York, NY 10017
Fax: (212) 935.1835
H.E. Heather Hodges
U.S. Ambassador to Ecuador
Embajada de los Estados Unidos
Av. Avigiras E12-170 y Av. Aloy Alfaro
Quito
Ecuador
H.E. Jorge Glass
Ministro de Telecomunicaciones e Información
Palacio de Carondelet
Quito
Republic of Ecuador
H.E. Raúl Vallejo Corral
Ministro de Educación
Palacio de Carondelet
Quito
Republic of Ecuador
Sr. Arturo Aguirre
Teleamazonas
afera@hotmail.com
Sr. Jaime Mantilla A.
Director, Hoy
jaime@hoy.com.ec