Ecuador
Ecuadorian court says it will uphold sentencing against journalists in defamation casePosted Feb 22 2012
Ecuador's National Court of Justice will uphold a decision ordering El Universo newspaper, its owner’s and chief opinion writer to pay $40 million to President Rafael Correa and that the paper’s owners, director and a former opinion editor serve a three-year prison sentence, according to the International Press Institute.
President Correa filed the defamation lawsuit in March 2011 after the paper’s then-chief opinion editor Emilio Palacio published a column titled, “No a las mentiras” or “No to the lies,” according to an Associated Press article. In the column, Correa is referred to as a dictator, and Palacio raised questions about an order Correa gave to troops to open “discretionary” gunfire on a hospital during a September 2010 police revolt.
Palacio has applied for political asylum in the United States, and El Universo’s owners, brothers César and Nicolás Perez, said they were considering taking similar action. The three are currently in Miami and say they fear for their safety in Peru, according to the Associated Press report.
Nicolás Perez said “the 90-year-old family business would continue printing and ‘questioning power,’” according to The Miami Herald.
The defendants have filed a petition for an injunction with the Washington, D.C.-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, to suspend sentencing until further review by the Commission.
Carlos Perez, the paper’s director, has been granted political asylum in Panama, according to the International Press Institute.
This defamation case initiated by Correa is one of several cases he has introduced against journalists in Ecuador. Human rights groups and international journalism organizations are condemning these decisions as continuing signs of deteriorating press freedom in Ecuador.