Its worth noting that most of the press issues in Ecuador centre on national politics. The big news organisations are highly partisan (fox-news like), pro-right wing and anti-Correa. Correa won a big law suit against one last year for libel (mentioned in your link). Is this state-enforced intimidation of journalists? I don't think there is an easy answer...
(Not trying to put my own opinion on this, just state some complexities of the issue)
In that case, which was decried by Ecudorean media as a crackdown on press freedom, the journalist wrote Correa "...ordered fire at will and without warning against a hospital full of civilians and innocent people..." and "committed crimes against humanity". Correa later pardoned the defendants. This was in relation to an attempted coup where the police force trapped Correa in a hospital.
Also important to note owners of the media in Ecuador are opposed to Correa since he does not support their interests.
As Chomsky said about this incident: Can you imagine if a coup against the President, supported by the press and executed by the police occurred in the United States? They would be put against a wall and shot.
So while there may be problems with press freedom in Ecuador they should be put in the proper context and investigated more carefully than a "freedom of the press index" can convey.
Comments
Its worth noting that most of the press issues in Ecuador centre on national politics. The big news organisations are highly partisan (fox-news like), pro-right wing and anti-Correa. Correa won a big law suit against one last year for libel (mentioned in your link). Is this state-enforced intimidation of journalists? I don't think there is an easy answer...
(Not trying to put my own opinion on this, just state some complexities of the issue)
In that case, which was decried by Ecudorean media as a crackdown on press freedom, the journalist wrote Correa "...ordered fire at will and without warning against a hospital full of civilians and innocent people..." and "committed crimes against humanity". Correa later pardoned the defendants. This was in relation to an attempted coup where the police force trapped Correa in a hospital.
Also important to note owners of the media in Ecuador are opposed to Correa since he does not support their interests.
As Chomsky said about this incident: Can you imagine if a coup against the President, supported by the press and executed by the police occurred in the United States? They would be put against a wall and shot.
So while there may be problems with press freedom in Ecuador they should be put in the proper context and investigated more carefully than a "freedom of the press index" can convey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Lawsuit_against_t...
Correa pardoned the defendants who were later brought back up on civil charges in the same matter.
In other words, there's press freedom in Ecuador, as long as the press doesn't threaten the government of Ecuador.