(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed great concern over the recent decline in press freedom in Ecuador. The organisation strongly condemned the murder of Ricardo Mendoza, the driver of Telesistema TV station director Carlos Muñoz Insua, during an attempt to kill the journalist on 9 February 2004. The organisation also deplored the harassment of radio stations […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed great concern over the recent decline in press freedom in Ecuador. The organisation strongly condemned the murder of Ricardo Mendoza, the driver of Telesistema TV station director Carlos Muñoz Insua, during an attempt to kill the journalist on 9 February 2004. The organisation also deplored the harassment of radio stations La Luna and Radio Quito in recent weeks.
On 9 February, two gunmen fired seven bullets at Muñoz’s car as it was waiting at a traffic light in the southwestern city of Guayaquil. He was not injured but Mendoza was killed.
According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency, the Revolutionary People’s Militias (MRP), a self-proclaimed terrorist group, later claimed responsibility for the attack, accusing Telesistema of not broadcasting its statements. The group said it would carry out further attacks and threatened other media outlets and journalists. The MRP expressed regret, however, over the death of Mendoza, who was not a target.
Miguel Rivadeneira, head of Radio Quito, which is critical of the government, received five anonymous telephone death threats on 26 and 27 January after the broadcast of an interview with a general about arms smuggling allegedly involving the army.
On its 3 February evening news programme, the Teleamazonas station reported that the government was taking measures to shut down the privately-owned radio station La Luna, which has criticised President Lucio Gutiérrez and his administration. In December 2003, the station strongly opposed the arrest of indigenous leader Humberto Cholango. The station gave extensive coverage to listeners’ protests about the incident and about a 1 February failed assassination attempt on the president of the National Confederation of Indigenous Peoples (CONAIE). The ethics committee of the national broadcasting supervisory body (Asociación Ecuatoriana de Radiodifusión, AER) summoned La Luna director Paco Velasco on 4 February. The next day, the government denied it was planning to close the station.
On 4 February, a strategy paper, allegedly from the army intelligence service, was sent to media outlets and political parties. The document contained a list of journalists and media outlets deemed subversive, which includes radio stations La Luna and Visión and the daily paper “El Comercio”. The army denied any involvement with the text.
