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.
Moreno has promised a new approach. Although he is from the same party and was vice-president under Correa, the new leader has spoken of their “differences” on the matter of freedom of expression. He has also indicated a willingness to review the communication law, which was criticised last November by the special rapporteurs for press freedom at the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Under the law, the state’s media watchdog, known as SuperCom, has enormous powers to penalise media outlets not just for what they publish but also for what they do not.
In April, four newspapers and three television channels were initially issued fines for not publishing a story that SuperCom deemed of public interest. The story about Guillermo Lasso – at the time the opposition candidate for the presidency – was first published by Argentina’s Pagina Doce newspaper, then re-run by several Ecuadorean outlets just before the runoff vote on 2 April.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reema Lagoo: Bollywood's 'favourite mother' dies

Image
Bollywood histrion Reema Lagoo, illustrious for taking part in the role of the "loving mother", has died at the age of fifty nine . She kicked the bucket in a very Mumbai hospital when suffering a cardiopulmonary arrest on Wednesday night. The histrion was illustrious for taking part in the role of the mother of main characters in films and television soaps. She additionally acted in many Sanskrit language plays. She marked in dozens of hit Bollywood films like Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and Pine Tree State Pyar Kiya. Lagoo started her career within the late Seventies, and shortly became illustrious for taking part in the mother of lead characters. She was additionally called the "on-screen mother" of fashionable actor Salman Khan, with whom she acted in many films. She contend Khan's mother in his initial film twenty eight years agone at the age of thirty one. People have taken to Twitter to pay their tributes.
Read more

Shubbak, London’s Arab arts and culture festival, opens this weekend

Image
The fourth edition of Shubbak, the biennial London festival that celebrates Arab art and culture, starts this weekend. The two-week-long festival (1 to 16 July) includes more than 150 artists from 14 Arab countries at over 80 events showing visual art, performance, film and literature. This year’s offerings will focus on “looking imaginatively to the future, whilst reflecting on the fragility, resilience and challenges of artists in times of crisis,” a press statement says.   The visual arts programme kicks off at the British Museum with a day of talks and performances, dedicated to how Middle Eastern artists and organisations can survive in the face political conflict, censorship and cultural destruction. “The British Museum is an ideal location and partner to explore the multiple issues of preserving cultural heritage and the fragile situation of artists,” says Eckhard Thiemann, the artistic director of Shubbak. A day-long symposium on Sunday, 2 July, organised by the Mosaic R...
Read more

Government once again failed to achieve the financial targets

Image
Federal government has yet again didn't win the money targets. The GDP remained at five.28 p.c against the target of five.7 p.c within the current financial year 2016-17. The commercial enterprise deficit of the country remained at three.7 p.c in initial 3 quarters of the year. The country ascertained rate of inflation in 2016-17 was four.1 percent , however from July 2016 to March 2017 it redoubled with the speed of half dozen.2 percent. In the initial 9 months of this financial year the speed of revenue  was Rs 3145 billion, whereas it had been Rs 2962 billion within the relevant month of last financial year. The growth rate within the agriculture sector was three.46 percent , whereas the govt. had mounted the target of three.5 percent. the expansion in necessary crops cultivation crossed its mounted targets because it remained on four.1 p.c against the target of two.1 percent The producing sector stood at five.3 , whereas it had been calculable that it might...
Read more