Ecuadornews:
The Ecuadorian Association of Newspaper Editors (Aedep) appointed journalist Francisco Rocha as its new executive director. He is a journalist and political analyst. Rocha hosts a talk show broadcast on YouTube called ‘Dialogues with Francisco Rocha,’ through the Youtube channel Democracia TV.
– President Lenin Moreno proposes a dialogue with the media, what would the conditions be?
– More than conditions there are unavoidable issues, for example, the regulations handled by the Council for Regulation of Communication, the role of the Superintendency of Communication and, of course, the Communication Law. This opening should not be just a visit. There must be consequences.
– Should they replace or reform the Communication Law?
– The president himself has recognized that the regulation is too judgmental. We have to build a substitute law to the current law. It is necessary to take the part that judges and to turn it into a law of promotion of rights.
– Does this announcement of the new government to lend a hand also implies a new attitude of the media towards the power?
– The president has said that freedom of expression is consubstantial to democracy and in the Aedep agrees with that. I am convinced that the path is to radicalize democracy and freedom of expression and, in that sense, President Moreno, as well as the presidents who have passed and those who will come, will always have the same commitment from the media: not to be silent against the violation of freedoms, to defend democracy and to make corruption visible.
– Can this conciliatory speech make people trust?
– Undoubtedly, this opening speech can immobilize society, so it is necessary to keep alerts on. We already had 10 years of a speech that also immobilized people and I hope we had learned something of that time. There is certainly a change in the official speech.
– Is it necessary a reform in instances such as the Ministry of Communication?
– The Ministry of Communication is always necessary when its job is to facilitate the flow of information for citizens. The propaganda state in which we lived for 10 years can not be reinstalled because, in addition to being expensive, it served to run over media and, above all, citizens who thought differently. The propaganda state must disappear (I).
