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Édison Lanza: ‘Communication is not considered a public service’
Posted On 26 Jul 2018
Ecuadornews:
Édison Lanza, Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), announced that the Ecuadorian Government received the response it had hoped for on the abolition of the Constitution of the concept of communication as a public service.
He explained that the IACHR considers that communication is a right and a human manifestation that cannot be considered a public service, and the media cannot be considered providers of a public service, because that would allow the State through the authority that the President of the Republic determine how he lends it to society.
He stressed that this concept should be deleted from the Constitution, and that this was transmitted last Tuesday to the Government through the Foreign Ministry and the ministries involved, as well as the Assembly.
Yesterday, the official presented his observations to the draft of reforms to the Law of Communication before the Commission of Collective Rights of the Assembly that studies twelve initiatives. It was pronounced in favor of the suppression of the ulterior responsibility and the mediatic lynching and put objections to the professionalization to exert journalism.
Lanza announced that at the invitation of the Ecuadorian government, the rapporteur will make an on-site visit to Ecuador between August 20 and 24 to evaluate the situation in the country on issues of freedom of expression; and the inheritance that the previous Government left in that sense will also be studied.
The legislative commission, behind closed doors, so far approved 27 articles of the 80 that contain the main document, which includes the suppression of the media lynching, the elimination of the Superintendence of Communication and the application of the reply at the judicial level. (I)
