In a Miami Herald op-ed, Ecuador's new ambassador to the United State, Nathalie Cely, tries hard to defend her government from accusations that it restricts press freedom. She says the media commit libel, abuse power and then try to hide behind the shield of media freedom.
The defense comes as criticisms of President Correa's actions continue to rise.
Domestically, the president has taken a number of steps to restrict media freedom in the country. Correa, as an individual citizen, sued the newspaper El Universo over an opinion column and won a multi-million dollar libel case. It now appears that Correa's lawyer colluded with the judge to write the opinion. Separately, the government has ordered the editor of Hoy arrested over his reporting on corruption linked to relatives of the president. The president has also pushed new restrictive laws through the national assembly that will limit the media's ability to cover the next political campaign.
Internationally, Correa is leading the attack against the OAS Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Both organizations have been critical of Correa's attacks on the media. So Correa and some of his allies in the hemisphere are attempting to reduce the power of the organizations and their ability to individually criticize governments in the hemisphere that censor media and repress journalists. (LA Times, RSF, CPJ, Al Jazeera). UPDATE: (NYT, CPJ via Miami Herald)
The fight over media freedom at the OAS spills well beyond Ecuador's borders and could be a big test for the organization's influence and relevance moving forward.
