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Andean Group - August 2011 (ISSN 1741-4466)

ECUADOR: Correa shrugged

Three directors and a former columnist of Ecuador’s national daily El Universo were sentenced to three years in prison in July and handed down a hefty fine after President Rafael Correa sued them for libel. Correa has, predictably, been demonised for trampling on press freedom, but there was a lack of balance in the coverage of the case, much like in the column in question. Prison sentences for libel are entirely inappropriate, and Correa’s intentions for both the media and the judiciary are disturbing, but there is an issue of press standards here as well as press freedom: Emilio Palacio’s column was at best disrespectful; at worst, libellous. It is not difficult to see how it would have goaded someone as notoriously thin-skinned as Correa.

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