Ecuadorian government officials, managers of the media and social organizations ratified the new Organic Law Reforming the Communication Law, which buries the legal framework created in 2013 by former President Rafael Correa, described by the opposition at the time as ” gag law”.
This Monday the National Registry received the new document, signed on Friday afternoon, which, upon being published in the official gazette, becomes the law of the country. With this, the legal figures that “limited” the free exercise of journalism and freedom of expression disappear, as stated by representatives of the news media who attended the ceremony.
In a symbolic act during the signing, the President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, threw the old legislation promoted by Rafael Correa in 2013 into the trash bin.
“Today we are a freer Ecuador. The gag law is already in the dustbin of history. We have a new Communication Law, a fundamental piece of the Ecuador of peace that we are building,” said Lasso.
Eduardo Mendoza, director of Radio 199, opined at the ceremony that the approval of the new law deserves to be celebrated as an achievement in favor of “freedom of thought, freedom of expression and human rights.”
For his part, the director of the newspaper El Universo, Carlos Pérez, indicated that the new provisions of the approved law “are important for the future of democracy in the country.”
President Lasso reiterated that the new legislation is not a triumph of the current government “but of all democratic Ecuador, to all those who have wielded the word as a sword so that freedom in Ecuador lasts,” he said.
Important changes
The approved legislation contains at least nine substantial changes, ranging from the elimination of control of the media through “censorship” to the rights to litigation against journalists or the media for published content.
Likewise, it annulled different elements such as “prior censorship”, “ulterior responsibility” and the “creation of citizen councils”, elements that continued in the debate in the National Assembly, supported by the followers of former President Rafael Correa.
Parameters are now established for “opinion on social networks” and other Internet platforms that were previously in legal limbo. The new legislation distances political groups from controlling public media, offers support to community media, and defines protection standards for victims of violence.
The approved legislation also prohibits messages of violence disseminated from the media and “the illegitimate use of violence.” The popular assemblies can also verify the management and make an evaluation of public media.
According to several Ecuadorian media, the process that led to the conclusion of this law went through several stages, such as eliminating some aspects of the legal body of 35 articles, which the opposition majority in the National Assembly promoted and which was vetoed by the president, and a ruling of the Constitutional Court.
Highlights of the Communications Law
self regulation
Both its behavior and its content remain in the hands of the regular media, which entails adopting codes of professional ethics in newsrooms.
The law says that “in no case” should “standards or regulations imposed by the State” be used, this is in clear contrast to the previous regulations inherited from Rafael Correa’s years in power.
Protection of journalists
The approved legislation also orders the Council for the Regulation, Development and Promotion of Information and Communication to prepare protocols for the protection of journalists “in risky activity”, especially those communicators who work in lines of investigation on corruption networks, organized crime , environmental issues, among others.
Remove control of public media from politicians
The state media must maintain neutrality, according to the new legislation, and must publish content that represents all the voices of the country and for the different audiences, as well as “guaranteeing their independence from both the interference of political powers and the pressures of the market”, with which they are called to promote an agenda of cultural and educational information.
Freedom of opinion in social networks
The new legislation guarantees the use of speech and opinions on the Internet and guarantees that the State will not regulate “personal expressions and opinions issued through social networks.”
Right of reply
Any publication whose content “affects” a person in their “moral integrity and dignity” will have the right to reply; If there is no response from the media, the law orders the Ombudsman to initiate processes for the protection of rights under the country’s constitutional norms, which is also attached to international conventions.
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