SIP rejects sanctions against Bonil and EL UNIVERSO

Bonil’s colum by EL UNIVERSO Newspaper

In a statement, the Committee on freedom of press of the Inter-American Society of press (SIP for its Spanish acronym), showed its rejection to the sanctions against the cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, “Bonil”, and EL UNIVERSO newspaper, of Ecuador, imposed by the Superintendency of communication (Supercom).

The President of the SIP, Claudio Paolillo, said that “this is the demonstration”  that proves that the freedom of expression in Ecaudor is over.

“If someone wants to be more precise, there is still a kind of freedom of expression under the regime of Rafael Correa: only the freedom that he authorized. Which, logically, is not liberty but the Empire of a tyrannical system”, added Paolillo.

Last Friday, the Supercom order a rectification for  Bonil – within a period of three days, regarding a caricature published by the El Universo newspaper on December 28, about the raid in the home of the former trade unionist, Fernando Villavicencio. This resolution obliges the Ecuadorian newspaper to pay a fine of 2% of the turnover of the last quarter.

In addition, the National Union of journalists, revealed that the sentence violates the Constitution, which enshrines the right of Ecuadoreans to comment and express their thoughts. While the Spanish newspaper, El PAIS, cited a statement by Bonil: “I will not stay silent, I will continue drawing as I have always done for 30 years, I’ve opted to use humor as a way of looking at life, and that includes politics”.