Freedom House is very concerned that an article published on March 4, 2012 in El Ciudadano misrepresented Freedom House’s position on freedom of expression in Ecuador. The article included inaccurate facts about a meeting between representatives of the Ecuadorean government and Freedom House; Freedom House welcomes the Ecuadorean government’s move to retract the article.
Freedom House welcomes Ecuador president Rafael Correa’s announcement that he will pardon three executives and one journalist from the newspaper El Universo, who were convicted for libel.
Freedom House condena enérgicamente la decisión de la Corte Nacional de Justicia de Ecuador de ratificar la sentencia contra El Universo presentada por el Presidente Rafael Correa. El día 15 de febrero, la Corte Nacional en Quito rechazó la apelación de El Universo, ratificando la sentencia de tres años de prisión para los tres ejecutivos del periódico y el pago de $40 millones de dólares de indemnización a favor del Presidente Correa.
Freedom House strongly condemns Ecuadorean Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the sentence against newspaper El Universo brought by President Rafael Correa. Yesterday, Quito’s high court rejected the appeal filed by the newspaper and upheld the prison sentence of three years against three executives, and a fine for $40 million for libel against President Correa. Read the press release in Spanish here.
In less than five years since taking office, President Rafael Correa has turned Ecuador into one of the more restrictive countries for freedom of expression in Latin America and taken steps to assault freedom of association.
