Newspaper Hoy seeks protection action

Jaime Mantilla

This morning was carried out the protection hearing against newspaper Hoy, filed by Ombudsman Ramiro Rivadeneira. The process is against Jaime Mantilla, director of the media.

The case arose after the publication of an article entitled “The President calls gay marriage novelty,” on May 31. The note was from the AFP, but the headline was made by the initiative of the Ecuadorian newspaper. Immediately the National Communications Secretariat (Secom) requested a correction on the same day as the government entity for the title that misrepresents the contents of the report by AFP.

However, Mantilla set aside the newspaper’s responsibility regarding the Secretariat’s letter. According to him “it was a complete textual copy and unchanged, from news agency.” Naturally the regime did not considered this as a rectification. Subsequently, the Secretariat initiated a campaign, scheduled on television, to count the days that newspaper Hoy did not rectified the note.

According to the Ombudsman, the AFP’s original title was “Correa rejects adoption of children by gay couples in Ecuador.” According to the institution, the protective action to protect the right of GLBTI community to publicly raise their legitimate interests. Rivadeneira expected that, through a court ruling, the newspaper correct the title of the note and declare the violation of rights.