They reject a bill that restricts the press

The government and press organizations in Ecuador rejected this Friday some reforms approved by the National Assembly, considering that they restrict the work of the media and freedom of expression.

The texts were endorsed the day before at the initiative of the opposition led by the UNES party, of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017), who in his administration maintained a harsh law against the media and journalists, imposing dozens of fines on them, in addition, to prosecute them for millionaire sums.

That law was in effect from 2013 to 2017.

The government of President Guillermo Lasso rejected in a statement what it considered a “gag” media initiative, which again seeks to restrict the right to freedom of expression and provide “persecution” mechanisms.

The reforms must go through the Executive, which has the power to approve or reject them totally or partially.

The reforms establish, among other measures, administrative and criminal sanctions and fines against communicators. It also seeks to judicialize the editorial opinion of the media and create defenders of the audiences, to whom it gives the possibility of approving or denying content, among others.

The president of the National Union of Journalists, Cristóbal Peñafiel, told the AP agency that the reforms “vulnerate” the work of the press and freedom of expression” and asked the Executive to veto them.

That initiative, he explained, “not only recalls the gag law that we had during the Correa government, but also makes it tougher, especially with regard to possible economic sanctions.”

“It is a return to the past, it re-establishes a regime of harsh sanctions that seeks to control the media and journalists,” César Ricaurte, director of the NGO Fundamedios, which watches over the validity of freedom of expression, agreed in statements to the AP. expression in the region.

“In recent years, the work of the press has revealed serious corruption processes that have especially affected the sector that has led the approval of these reforms.”

“The political sector still has the idea that the press should be at the service of power or otherwise submit them through sanctions,” he added.

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