The Inter-American Press Association asks the president of Ecuador to protect freedom of expression

2024-03-19 23:40:03

QUITO (AP) — A delegation from the Inter-American Press Association conveyed its concern to President Daniel Noboa on Tuesday about the situation of freedom of expression and the press in Ecuador and asked him to make State decisions to protect them, in a country that is going through a wave of violence caused by criminal organizations linked to drug trafficking.

In a meeting at the Carondelet presidential palace, the head of the IAPA, Roberto Rock, asserted that “authoritarian governments have tried to delegitimize the press and thought that even the independent press would disappear,” in reference to the situation in the region.

But he stressed that, after the dialogue with the Ecuadorian president, “we only have to believe his words regarding respect for the press.”

They also asked Noboa to generate and implement State measures to strengthen the protection mechanism for journalists, to combat impunity in cases against journalists and media, and to analyze the need to update its legal framework regarding slander and defamation, still in force. in the Ecuadorian Penal Code and that should be in the civil framework.

The Secretary of Communication of Ecuador, Roberto Izurieta, stated that Noboa ratified the Chapultepec Declaration because “we share this fight to know sources of verified information to build a more just and progressive society.”

That document is a declaration of rights and principles on freedom of expression in the Americas.

The visit occurs after an unprecedented act of violence against journalism in Ecuador occurred at the beginning of January with the irruption of a group of armed hooded men on the TC Televisión channel, where they intimidated journalists and workers of that medium live. . The episode ended without victims but showed the exposure situation of communicators in the country.

After this, President Daniel Noboa declared that Ecuador is in a state of internal armed conflict, due to the action of criminal organizations that were classified as “terrorists.”

The national organization that ensures freedom of expression, Fundamedios, highlighted that in its 2023 annual report that 224 attacks and the exile of nine journalists were recorded. He pointed out that criminal gangs have become one of “the main aggressors against freedom of expression and their threats, attacks and murders have worsened.”

The climate of violence, the report stated, “evidenced the lack of protection in which Ecuadorian journalism finds itself.”

The insecurity crisis, the worst in national history, places the country among the most dangerous in the region and at the end of 2023 left a balance of almost 7,600 violent murders, well above the 4,600 in 2022.

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