Pazmiño pronounces himself once again on the clarification of “indirect promotion”
President of the Constitutional Court (CC for its Spanish acronym), Patricio Pazmiño, in a meeting with official media (Ecuadortv and El Telegrafo) and seized media (TC and Gama), to address concerns regarding Article 203 of the Code of Democracy, which regulates the work of journalists in election campaign, explained that the indirect promotion in the media in the election campaign period “is understood as when there is an act or omission that affects the equity principle that protects all the candidates.”
The National Union of Journalists (UNP for its Spanish acronym) became concerned after the “ambiguity” of the article, which stipulates that “the media should refrain from direct or indirect promotion which would affect for or against a particular candidate, postulate, options , electoral preferences or political thesis, during the election campaign. ”
The phrase “indirect promotion” was the one that alarmed the UNP in particular. Because of that, the CC was asked for a clarification on what are the parameters to define what is misleading publicity, considering that, not being defined such parameters, it would be a subjective judgment of the sanctioning authority.
However, Pazmiño says that the clarification of the article granted, already guarantees the principles of fairness and equality for all candidates, and that from now on, the regulations rests with the CNE, which “must establish mechanisms of technical monitoring and the use of space in the public, private and community media, which must be applied in a flexible and timely way. “