30 Nov 11 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
A government official in Ecuador has issued a public warning against a Twitter user following posts on the micro-blogging site. Betty Escobar, an Ecuadorian citizen who lives in the United States was warned by Fernando Cordero, the President of the National Assembly, to “change her language or she would soon regret her licentiousness.” The warning followed a critical tweet from Escobar to the official which said “you are incompetent, you fail to comply with the law and you support the dictatorship! you and correa should go to prison for corruption! double standards. “
04 Oct 11 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa has threatened to bring charges against the newspaper El Universo after publishing a letter critical of the Correa’s negative comments about María Leonor Jiménes, the Guaya Court of Justice president, on a radio program. The letter was written by legislator Cynthia Viteri, daughter of Jiménes, and in it she called the president “an ignorant coward, hypocrite and a bully”. Correa tweeted that “newspapers should not publish insults.” Earlier this year, Correa won a libel suit against El Universo, after a columnist criticised the president. The newspaper was handed a $40 million fine and prison sentences for the owner and the columnist.
21 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost
An appeals court in Ecuador has upheld libel convictions and prison sentences for three newspaper directors and a former writer. El Universo newspaper published a column by Emilio Palacio that called President Rafael Correa a dictator. Fines of $42 million were also upheld by the judges against the executives of the newspaper. President Correa attended Tuesday’s court hearing and said that the ruling meant Ecuador has begun to free itself of a corrupt press. The defendants are free pending appeal. The Committee to Protect Journalists have called the decision a “blow to freedom of expression.”
15 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost
The Ecuadorian Telecommunications Superintendency has announced it would seek to punish seven radio broadcasters for a simultaneous broadcast of a debate on free speech without first notifying the authorities. On Ecuador’s Independence Day (10 August), Ecuadoradio, a broadcaster owned by the El Comercio group that publishes the eponymous newspaper, organised a debate between several radio broadcasters to discuss President Rafael Correa‘s proposed communications bill, which would limit business interests of media companies and promotes government regulation of such companies. On the same day, several major Ecuadorian newspapers ran the same cover, titled “For Freedom of Expression”.
