No Justification for Media Censorship Of “Say No” Campaign in Ecuador’s Unconstitutional Referendum

  ECUADOR - 01/23/2018 (PRESS RELEASE JET)

The acts of censorship that took place today in Ecuador provide irrefutable evidence of the extremely serious situation in the country and the concerted and deliberate attempts to undermine the democratic process. 

On November 29, 2017, Ecuador’s current President, Lenin Moreno, by-passed official channels including the Constitutional Court, and announced a referendum that, if successful, will concentrate enormous powers with the President including key oversight functions such as the auditor, judiciary, attorney general and electoral council.

Today, all of Ecuador’s television stations have refused to air publicity from the National Women’s Forum – the civil society organization leading the “Say No” campaign – even though the publicity has been authorized by the National Electoral Council and, pursuant to the country’s Democracy Code, the television outlets are required to air it.

All of Ecuador’s national television stations including, TC Television, Gama TV, EcuaVisa, Teleamazonas, RTU, RTS and CanalUno have buckled to government pressure telling them not to air any information from the “Say No” campaign. 

The ramifications of this cannot be overstated. As a result of this outright censorship, Ecuador’s citizens are being intentionally misinformed. 

Ecuador’s former President Rafael Correa, who is in Ecuador campaigning against the unconstitutional referendum stated: “This is outrageous. The recipe for the perfect dictatorship is the complicity of the media”