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Cesar Ricaurte: “It is evident that there is fear.”
Posted On 06 Jan 2017

Cesar Ricaurte, director of Fundamedios, spoke with Daily Expreso on freedom of expression in the country and the Law of Communication.
– Why was the book ‘The crime of expression’ born?
– To leave a record of the consequences of the application of the Law of Communication. There were analysis, loose data, and monitoring. The law has been abusive, arbitrary and selective. The standard has ambiguous and obscure items that are subject to interpretation.
– What has happened in this decade with the freedom of expression?
– In 2008 we had 22 warnings, while there were 455 penalties in 2015. This began with verbal assaults and insults against journalists. The law is applied to manipulate traditional and digital media that are out of its reach. There are now direct attacks, copyright claims, threats and even the hacking of Twitter accounts.
– Are contents imposed?
– The imposition of content is called prior censorship. The margins of censorship have increased in the pages of the newspapers, in the radio news and the television channels. There is also self-censorship: there is clearly fear of sanctions or replications and rectifications.
– Daily Expreso and EXTRA have been sanctioned several times by the Superintendency of Communication.
There is a case against Daily Extra that is paradigmatic, and we always quote. The Supercom sanctioned the newspaper after the publication of a cover of a model with swimwear. That picture was taken with her consent. In the case of Daily Expreso, the last time the Supercom admitted the Journal, but they had to publish a replica. We have highlighted both cases because they have had a very significant and interesting legal defense since those sanctions have been fought.
Source: http://expreso.ec/