(IPYS/IFEX) – The Supreme Court’s First Criminal Chamber has acquitted Jorge Vivanco Mendieta, a journalist and current deputy director of the Guayaquil daily “Express”, in one of the legal proceedings that Fernando Rosero, member of parliament for the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party (Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano, PRE), had brought against him. Rosero had appealed the lower courts’ […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – The Supreme Court’s First Criminal Chamber has acquitted Jorge Vivanco Mendieta, a journalist and current deputy director of the Guayaquil daily “Express”, in one of the legal proceedings that Fernando Rosero, member of parliament for the Ecuadorian Roldosist Party (Partido Roldosista Ecuatoriano, PRE), had brought against him. Rosero had appealed the lower courts’ verdicts and sought special leave to have the rulings annulled. The Supreme Court ruling, which cannot be appealed, declared the charges without merit.
The three Supreme Court judges presiding over the case were divided in their opinion. Judges Gonzalo Zambrano and Eduardo Brito ruled that the request for annulment was inappropriate. The third judge, Carlos Riofrío, voted in favour not because of a discrepancy in the sentence but because of his opposition to Article 14 of the Judicial Proceedings Law, which states that special requests for annulment do not apply in such cases.
The case ended up at the Supreme Court following Rosero’s appeal of the decision by Judge Alberto Sorroza, of the Guayas Ninth Criminal Chamber, who acquitted Vivanco at the first hearing. Subsequently, the Guayaquil High Court’s Sixth Chamber upheld the ruling, arguing that the damages claimed by Rosero were unfounded.
The member of parliament had launched two proceedings against Vivanco for alleged damages: the criminal proceeding, which culminated in this most recent ruling, and a civil one, which is nearing completion following a ruling in favour of the journalist.
The legal action stemmed from a 15 July 2002 article by Vivanco entitled “The generals do not defend themselves”, in which he criticised members of the Ecuadorian military hierarchy for not reacting to Rosero’s accusations. Rosero had referred to the officers as “chatarreros de Cenepa” [in reference to the 1995 confrontation between Ecuador and Peru and the purchase of “chatarra” arms, meaning old and useless].
Rosero had sought damages totaling US$1 million from Vivanco. Moreover, after the first acquittal, the member of parliament publicly announced that he would have to take the law “into his own hands.”
Vivanco told IPYS that he was satisfied with the Supreme Court’s ruling and welcomed the fact that the principle of freedom of opinion and expression had been respected in Ecuador. The ruling, he added, also put an end to an attempt to instill fear in journalists and the media, by persecuting them for opinions expressed.
Recommended Action
Send letters to authorities:
– welcoming the verdict
Appeals To
His Excellency Gustavo Noboa
President of the Republic of Ecuador
E-mail: saladeprensa@presidencia.ec-gov.net
Armando Bermeo
Supreme Court President
E-mail: pres-csj@access.net.ec
Ramiro Larrea
Anti-corruption Commission President
E-mail: coantico@ecuanex.net.ec
Marco Morales
Constitutional Court Chair
Fax: +593 2 2 569861
With copies to:
Lic. Flora Peroaño de Simancas
President of the National Union of Journalists
E-mail: simancas@hoy.net
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
