Freedoms of press and speech are guaranteed under Ecuadorian law, but the government severely restricts these rights in practice. President Correa’s administration has openly discredited and attacked private media as well as individual journalists (FotP 2015). The Communication Law (in Spanish), imposes aggressive regulations on the media, fuelling a hostile environment for journalists, whom, in turn, increasingly practice self-censorship. Instances of intimidation, harassment, and attacks on journalists rose dramatically in 2014 (FotP 2015). Defamation and libel are criminalized in Ecuador, and several journalists have faced criminal and civil defamation cases in recent years (FotP 2015). Outlets that provide favorable coverage of the government are generally favored in the process of awarding public advertisement contracts (FotP 2015). Businesspeople generally avoid any association with media outlets that are critical of the government for fear of losing public contracts or being subjected to government audits in reprisal (FotP 2015). In 2014, the Superintendency of Information and Communication (SUPERCOM) ordered ‘ratifications’ be made to a cartoon published in El Universo depicting high-ranking officials’ corruption. SUPERCOM also fined the paper El Universo for not scrutinizing the text in the cartoon prior to publishing (FitW 2015). Instances of online censorship have occurred during 2014, including the suspension of Twitter accounts and the deletion of online content (FotP 2015). The media environment in Ecuador is considered ‘not free’ (FotP 2015).
Freedom of assembly is protected under the Ecuadorian Constitution, yet this is not always respected in practice (HRR 2014). Ecuador’s civil society is underdeveloped, and the government’s monopoly over power has excluded any civic participation that is not in line with the government’s approach (BTI 2014). Furthermore, a 2013 presidential decree granted the government powers to intervene in the operations of NGOs and to forcibly dissolve them (FotP 2015). Evidence suggests that the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) does not engage effectively with a large segment of the Ecuadorian civil society (Global Security, June 2015). Indeed, civil society does not participate in agenda formulation, policy-making, or government monitoring (BTI 2014).
