Ecuador's journalists pin hope on new president after Correa's war on media
After the inauguration this month of Ecuador’s first new president in a decade, the country’s beleaguered journalists will be looking to see if Lenin Moreno is any more tolerant of the press than his notoriously confrontational predecessor. Moreno has hinted that he will reform the communication law, which was introduced in 2013 by former president Rafael Correa as a means of exerting control over a largely critical private media. Hundreds of lawsuits have been launched as a result of the legislation, cowing editors, undermining the financial base of newspapers and even forcing cartoonists to “rectify” their images. Police have raided newsrooms, publications have been shut down and at least one journalist has been forced into exile. Local journalists have frequently complained that censorship inside Ecuador under Correa belied the government’s claim to be a champion of free speech when it accepted the asylum request of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. ...