El Comercio

By John Otis/CPJ Andes Correspondent

When the Quito daily El Comercio was sold in December to a Latin America media tycoon known for avoiding editorial conflict, press freedom advocates feared the newspaper would soften its coverage of the Ecuadoran government. Those concerns have now increased with last month’s firing of Martín Pallares, one of El Comercio’s most prominent journalists and a fierce government critic.

By John Otis/CPJ Andes Correspondent

Blaming government harassment and a related advertising slowdown, the daily newspaper Hoy ceased its Quito-based print edition Monday, and said it would transform into an online-only newspaper.

By John Otis/CPJ Andes Correspondent

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa generated little actual news during a two-day trip to Chile last month. So Ecuador's four main newspapers did the obvious: They published short wire service dispatches about his visit.

Bogota, Colombia, February 25, 2013--Authorities in Peru should immediately determine the motive behind the murder of a journalist on Saturday and bring the perpetrators to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

By John Otis/ CPJ Andes Correspondent

In the wake of President Rafael Correa's landslide re-election on Sunday, many Ecuadoran reporters are bracing for another four years of conflict with his left-leaning government.  Neither side claims to relish the prospect, but continued clashes seem inevitable given the bad blood that has developed between them. 

Rafael Correa's administration has led Ecuador into a new era of widespread repression by pre-empting private news broadcasts, enacting restrictive legal measures, smearing critics, and filing debilitating defamation lawsuits. A CPJ special report by Carlos Lauría