Cartoonist Xavier ‘Bonil’ Bonilla threatened by son of former Ecuadorian president
Bogotá, Colombia, August 13, 2020 – Ecuadorian authorities must swiftly and thoroughly investigate the threat to cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, ensure he has adequate protection, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 6, Jacobo Bucaram Pulley, the son of former President Abdalá Bucaram Ortiz, tweeted a threatening message…
Enrique Rosales Ortega
On November 30, 2017, political columnist Enrique Rosales Ortega began serving a two-year sentence on criminal defamation charges, according to his newspaper, El Universo. Rosales entered a detention center in Santa Elena, southwestern Ecuador, accompanied by police officers, after an appeals court upheld a 2016 conviction, César Ricaurte, director of the Quito-based press freedom group…
José Luis León Desiderio
León, 43, host of a daily news program “Opinión” on local Radio Minutera, was shot in the coastal city of Guayaquil. León often denounced gang violence and police inaction in the city, Alejandro Alvarez, a reporter for the daily El Universo, told CPJ. León left his home at 11 p.m. on February 13 to meet…
Julio Augusto García Romero
Photographer García Romero died after inhaling tear gas while covering a demonstration against then-President Lucio Gutiérrez. Protesters were moving toward the Palacio de Carondelet, the seat of the executive branch, when police fired water cannons and tear gas grenades into the crowd. The Chilean-born García Romero, 58, was taking photographs when he collapsed, the Guayaquil-based…
Indian journalists attacked on the ground and surveilled online
Demonstrators and police in India have attacked journalists covering protests across the country following the introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019. Some media workers have reported that they have been asked about their religious identity and others have been forced to delete pictures and videos from their phones. Journalists covering the protests…
The U-turn: Moreno steers Ecuador away from Correa’s media repression
The administration of President Lenín Moreno has dramatically diverged from that of his predecessor, Rafael Correa, who was severely critical of the Ecuadoran press and passed one of the most restrictive media laws in the region. Nonetheless, journalists say they will be wary until Moreno fulfills his promises to scale back the Communications Law and…
The U-turn:
CPJ’s work in Ecuador Over the last 10 years, CPJ has viewed the situation in Ecuador as a priority in Latin America and documented the deteriorating press freedom environment under former President Rafael Correa through special reports, articles, and reporting trips to the country. In a 2011 report, “Confrontation, Repression in Correa’s Ecuador,” CPJ analyzed…
The U-turn:
Correa’s critics disadvantaged online, especially on Twitter Long before other world leaders took to Twitter, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa was using social media and other digital tools to air grievances and abuse his adversaries. After joining Twitter in July 2011 (with a tweet about a boring meeting), Correa quickly joined forces with another social media-savvy…
Ecuador pledges to reform repressive media law
Country needs free press for Moreno’s fight against corruption Quito, Ecuador, March 16, 2018 –The government of Ecuador pledged in a meeting Wednesday with the Committee to Protect Journalists to reform an oppressive communications law this year and to invite international experts to visit the country and analyze Ecuador’s compliance with international legal standards.