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UN Rapporteur considers that Ecuador must improve the independence of media
Posted On 11 Oct 2018
Ecuadornews:
The special rapporteur for the right to freedom of opinion and expression of the UN, David Kaye, believes that Ecuador should strengthen the independence of its media and expedite the access of citizens to information.
This was expressed today by the rapporteur at a meeting at the Palace of Carondelet with the Ecuadorian president, Lenin Moreno.
“It is clear that it has to be done through the presidency, assembly members, the media, civil society and all the actors involved in this process,” he said in statements reproduced by the Presidency on Twitter.
In a later statement issued by the National Secretariat of Communication (Secom), it is explained that Kaye “highlighted the National Government’s vision to re-establish freedom of expression in Ecuador, an effort in which different actors such as the National Assembly are involved, State entities and civil society. “
The rapporteur is in the Andean country since last Thursday to analyze the situation after ten years of Rafael Correa’s term (2007-2017), in which restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression were denounced.
Kaye invited Moreno’s government to continue talking with “the media” and “civil society” so that together they can “promote greater freedom of expression.”
For his part, President Moreno told him that it is a policy of his Executive “respect for freedom of expression, and his political will to comply with the international commitments acquired by the country in the field of human rights,” the statement of the Secom.
The document indicated that as a sign of openness, the president sent to the National Assembly (Parliament) a substantial reform of the Organic Law of Communication that was agreed with different social actors, the academy and the media.
For his part, the Secretary of Communication, Andrés Michelena, recalled that, since he took office in May 2017, the Government of Moreno has moved towards a process of reform to that legislation dating from 2013, in the days of its predecessor.
“We are waiting for what happens in the Assembly (Parliament) regarding the reform and frequency allocation processes,” he said.
The Organic Law of Communication was approved in 2013, during the Government of Rafael Correa with the objective declared by him to regulate the abuses of the press, although the opposition and the press unions described it as “gag”.
The current reform project, promoted by the Government of Lenin Moreno, includes the elimination of the Superintendence of Communications (Supercom), an organization created under that legislation and which the private media of the country consider as the architect of an informative repression. (I)
