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<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><img
width=300 height=47 id="Picture_x0020_3"
src="cid:image003.gif@01CC4E21.5CADE7D0"
alt="http://www.washingtonpost.com/rw/sites/twpweb/img/logos/twp_logo_300.gif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h1>Ecuador’s autocrat cracks down on media freedom<o:p></o:p></h1>
<h3>By Editorial, <span class=timestamp>Published: July 28</span><o:p></o:p></h3>
<p>THE POPULIST authoritarianism that a few years ago seemed to be sweeping
Latin America is beginning to wane. Voters and politicians alike have watched
the deepening economic and social disorder in Venezuela and its allies, and
they sensibly concluded — most recently in Peru — that they want none of it.
But in Venezuela itself, and in those countries where acolytes of Hugo Chavez
took control, abuses of power and of human rights are only growing worse.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The latest evidence of this came last week in Ecuador, a small Andean nation
where an erratic populist, Rafael Correa, has been faithfully imitating Mr.
Chavez’s methods for concentrating power and eliminating opposition. As happened
in Venezuela, Mr. Correa’s government has taken over much of the media:
According to <a
href="http://cima.ned.org/publications/confronting-news-state-independent-media-latin-america">a
recent report </a>for the National Endowment for Democracy, the government
controlled one radio station when Mr. Correa became president in 2007, but it
now owns five television channels, four radio stations, two newspapers and four
magazines.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Mr. Correa is seeking to destroy or silence the remaining independent media,
which to his distress have taken on topics such as the hundreds of millions of
dollars in government contracts awarded to his brother. The president <a
href="http://www.ifex.org/ecuador/2011/03/23/journalists_sued/">has filed one
lawsuit</a> against the authors of a book about his brother and a <a
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110720-719608.html">second against
the editorial page editor</a> and three directors of one of Ecuador’s most
influential newspapers, El Universo.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Employing an archaic law that criminalizes expression “to discredit,
dishonor or disparage” an “authority,” Mr. Correa demanded prison sentences and
$80 million in compensation for a column in which the editor, Emilio Palacio,
referred to the president as a dictator and faulted his behavior during a
controversial episode in which soldiers clashed with striking police officers
last year. Last week the president personally attended the trial while thuggish
supporters threw eggs and bottles at the defendants outside the courthouse. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>To no one’s surprise, the provisional<a
href="http://www.ned.org/cima/ecuador-judge-orders-jail-fines-newspaper"> judge
hearing the case</a> quickly ruled in the president’s favor, sentencing Mr.
Palacio and the three El Universo directors to three years in prison and
awarding $40 million in damages to Mr. Correa — an amount that exceeds the
total value of the newspaper. The defendants are appealing to higher courts,
but as the media rapporteur of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights
noted, the decision “constitutes a grave warning to any citizen or media outlet
that has opinions or information about public officials that could be
considered offensive, thus obstructing processes that are natural and necessary
in any democracy.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Such criticism is unlikely to deter Mr. Correa, who recently won approval of
a constitutional amendment setting up a media oversight panel he could use to
censor and fine journalists without bothering to go to court. The conclusion
offered by <a
href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/21/2325023/ecuador-media-takes-on-president.html">Inter-American
Press Association President Gonzalo Marroquin</a> was grim but appropriate:
This is a “systematic and hostile campaign to do away with the independent
press and establish, by law or through the courts, ownership of the truth that
all the Ecuadoran people must swallow.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<h2><a href="http://www.economist.com/"><span style='text-decoration:none'><img
border=0 width=183 height=89 id="Picture_x0020_1"
src="cid:image001.gif@01CC4E07.A56837B0" alt="The Economist"></span></a><span
lang=EN><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<h2><span lang=EN>Censorship in Ecuador<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span lang=EN style='font-size:28.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Lèse-presidente<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<h1><span lang=EN>Rafael Correa seeks to bankrupt his media foes<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=ec-article-info><span lang=EN>Jul 30th 2011 | <em>QUITO </em>| from
the print edition <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.5in'><span lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><img border=0 width=290 height=334 id="Picture_x0020_2"
src="cid:image002.jpg@01CC4E07.A56837B0"
alt="http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20110730_AMP002.jpg"><span
class=caption><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span class=caption><span lang=EN>No news is good news for
Correa</span></span><span lang=EN> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span lang=EN style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>FOR a man who calls
his country’s legal system dysfunctional and corrupt, Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s
president, has fared remarkably well in the courts. In 2008 he won $600,000
when he sued Banco Pichincha, Ecuador’s biggest bank, because it had mistakenly
included him in a list of delinquent credit-card holders. On July 20th a judge
ordered Emilio Palacio, a former columnist for <em><span style='font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"'>El Universo</span></em>, one of Ecuador’s main
newspapers, and three of the paper’s directors, to pay Mr Correa the colossal
total of $40m in damages, and sentenced all of the four men to three years in
jail.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang=EN style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Mr Correa sued over a
column, published in February, referring to a controversial incident last year
in which, amid a gun battle, troops whisked him out of a hospital where he had
sought refuge during a mutiny by police. The president himself claimed he was
the victim of an attempted coup. Mr Palacio wrote that Mr Correa, whom he
called a “dictator”, might some day face criminal prosecution for putting his
own safety above anyone else’s when he told soldiers they could fire at the
mutineers outside a hospital full of people. Mr Palacio implied that this was a
war crime, but provided no evidence for his claim.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang=EN style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Mr Correa had reason
to feel aggrieved at this slur. But he rejected an offer by <em><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>El Universo</span></em> to publish a
rebuttal. His choice of remedy has cast a chill over Ecuador’s independent
media. The president attended the court in person. A small crowd of his
supporters pelted the defendants and their lawyers with eggs and bottles
outside the courthouse. The media were barred from the hearing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang=EN style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The defendants have
appealed, and are seeking to have the case annulled on procedural grounds. (The
sentences will not be implemented until after the appeal.) They say the damages
would almost bankrupt <em><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>El
Universo</span></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang=EN style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Mr Correa hailed the verdict
as ending a “reign of terror” by the media, though he also said he would
appeal, seeking the full $80m in damages he originally claimed. He insists he
wants justice, not money, and will donate the damages to an environmental
scheme. (He spent half the $600,000 from Banco Pichincha—on which the tax
office did not ask him to pay income tax—on a flat in Belgium.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span lang=EN style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Ecuador’s independent
media has fallen into the trap of acting as a political opposition to Mr
Correa, a popular and powerful president. But Mr Correa has shown a disturbing
intolerance of criticism. He is also suing the authors of a book about his
elder brother’s business dealings with the government. The Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights said the ruling against <em><span style='font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"'>El Universo </span></em>was “contrary to regional
freedom-of-expression standards” and would result in self-censorship. The
president may be elected, but he is doing his best to live up to Mr Palacio’s
gibe that he is a dictator.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=ec-article-info><span lang=EN style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>from
the print edition | The Americas <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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