Reporters’ group asks Ecuador to cancel apology demand

By Senabri Silvestre

SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep. (AA) – A journalists advocacy group on Wednesday slammed a decision by Ecuadoran authorities that demanded a local TV station and journalist apologize for "media lynching" in a series of reports critical to the government.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the demand for an apology was “ridiculous” and a “clear attempt of censor” by Ecuador’s communications authorities, Supercom, against the Teleamazonas channel and journalist Janet Hinostroza for an investigative report related to the government´s purchase of medicine. The group has asked Ecuador to reverse its decision.

"'Media lynching' is one of the most patently bizarre violations imagined by Ecuador's restrictive communications law", CPJ’s senior program coordinator for the Americas, Carlos Lauria, said in statement on the group’s website.

Supercom said Teleamazonas spread information that damaged the prestige and credibility of the National Public Procurement Service (Sercop) that is responsible for medicine purchases.

The communications authority said the articles aired during the Breakfasts 24 Hours program hosted by Hinostroza, and News 24 Hours, about a reverse auction process for the medication, helped to create “the perception that it does not consider the quality of the drugs”.

It also said the television station was in violation of the law by addressing the issue for six months, on 11 segments without the participation of official sources, and that Hinostroza stated allegations as facts that were not proven or contextualized.

“Consequently those that spread and produced such content shall issue a public apology in the same space, programs and sections as many times as it was aired the spaces that led to the complaint,” Supercom said Tuesday.

The decision was based on part of Ecuador’s communication law that prohibits media lynching -- defined as the repeated publication of material in order to damage an individual’s reputation or credibility.

Hinostroza was defiant after learning of the decision. “Now I am more eager to investigate corruption”, she said on Twitter.

CPJ said the country’s 2013 Communications Law has stifled investigative reporting and suppressed coverage of authorities.