On two occasions, personnel from "Vanguardia" magazine have not been allowed to access information contained on confiscated computers, despite a judge's order allowing them to do so.
(Fundamedios/IFEX) – On 24 December 2010, there was a failure to comply, for a second time, with an order issued by Guayas 1st Criminal Magistrate Ángel Rubio allowing personnel from the “Vanguardia” magazine to access journalistic information contained on the hard drives of 25 computers that were seized on 17 December.
Paúl Andrés Cabezas, the administrative receiver of the computers, failed to comply with the order issued by Judge Rubio because he allegedly was “not notified” appropriately.
On 17 December, “Vanguardia” was subjected to the seizure of its computers, which contain sensitive journalistic information, because of alleged rent arrears.
Andrés Crespo, the president of Editorial Gran Tauro, which owns the magazine, has stated repeatedly that the seizure of the computers was “totally unconstitutional and illegal since a matter of pertaining to property rental cannot be turned into coercive measures. The constitution forbids someone else’s information from being retained. They are flagrantly contravening the law.”
On the other hand, Pedro Delgado, president of the AGD-CFN trust and the person responsible for the seizure of the magazine’s assets, has reiterated in an interview published by the state-owned online newspaper “El Ciudadano”, that “the moneys owed by a company that sells its products and gets paid for advertising cannot be ignored.”
