CPJ promotes press freedom worldwide and defends the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.
Attempts to amend Ecuador’s constitution to categorize communications as a “public service” has sparked a fierce debate, with one critic drawing comparisons to the way dictators such as Stalin and Hitler used the press as a propaganda tool, and supporters of President Rafael Correa’s government arguing that the proposed reforms will make journalism more accountable and accessible.
For Ecuadoran journalist and political activist Fernando Villavicencio, life on the run has meant wading through jungle rivers to avoid police checkpoints, dining on crocodile and monkey meat, and penning his latest book from a series of safe houses.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa generated little actual news during a two-day trip to Chile last month. So Ecuador’s four main newspapers did the obvious: They published short wire service dispatches about his visit.
Correa was not satisfied. In a televised speech he accused the newspapers of violating the human rights of Ecuadorans by failing to provide them with important information about his trip to Santiago, where he met with Chile’s president and received an honorary university degree. A few years ago editors might have shrugged it off as just another one of Correa’s rants against the media. But that was then.
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