RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ecuador is raising its standard of press freedom compared to other countries in the world, according to a recent Reporters Without Borders report. In the ranking, Costa Rica is the only Latin American country that is in a “good situation”, occupying eighth place, after European countries such as Portugal, Ireland or Finland.
Other countries in the region, such as Argentina in 29th place and Uruguay in 44th place, occupy a “rather good situation”. Ecuador is in 68th place, occupying a “problematic situation” as well as Chile in 82nd place or Colombia in 145th place out of 180 countries monitored. More worrisome is the situation in Nicaragua, Venezuela or Cuba, which receive a “very serious” rating.
Read also: Check out our coverage on Ecuador
Reporters Without Borders is a French non-governmental organization founded in Montpellier in 1985, with headquarters in Paris and established with the aim of defending press freedom as well as the exercise of the profession of communicators persecuted for their work.
The NGO assures in its report that the current world health crisis has deepened the gap of difficulties suffered by journalists due to the obstacles to obtaining information on how Latin American governments are managing health and disease containment policies.
According to their analysis, distrust of the media has gained ground, due to the policies of trivialization of journalism promoted by governments with an anti-democratic vocation. This happens mainly in Brazil, which is ranked 110, and in other countries such as Venezuela (159), Nicaragua (160) or Cuba (173) out of 180 countries on the list.
These public attacks, the report says, are becoming increasingly pronounced, repeated and violent, fueling insults to journalistic work, as well as online smear campaigns and harassment as well as threats and intimidation, especially against women journalists.
Mexico is the most dangerous country for the exercise of this profession. The report of the international NGO reports at least 7 journalists killed so far in 2022. This figure coincides with the monitoring carried out by the Civic Proposal Research and Training Center of Mexico, which reports at least 51 deaths of journalists in the exercise of their duties. professions since 2016. Mexico ranks 127 out of 180 on the world list and 179 out of 180 in compliance with security parameters for the protection of journalists.
In Ecuador, the 2022 report shows that the country climbed 28 places compared to the 2021 balance, where it ranked 96th out of 180 countries. This location has been maintained since the government of Rafael Correa in Ecuador, which ranked the country in position 108 in 2015 due to the policy of stigmatizing journalists and the judicial intimidation suffered by some of them.
For the organization, the situation in Ecuador is still tense. According to the report, communicators still work in a state of growing insecurity, with frequent attacks on journalists, often provoked by political authorities.
This insecurity is explained by the rejection of journalistic activity installed in society through a sustained government policy of harassment. The intensive policy of trivializing the work of the press during the government of Rafael Correa is one of the mainstays of this situation.
According to the conclusion of a study carried out by Allen Panchana-Macay and Carlos Barrera, both academics from the University of Navarra, in a work entitled “Ecuador TV as a means of propaganda in the presidential elections of the Correa era (2007-2017)” the Informative content on political issues transmitted in the public media of Ecuador, during the Correa government, had a marked propaganda role.
The analysis of the contents of the newscasts in the public media during this period shows that, in general, they did not have a balance or different sources; there was no explanation of the news context or, if it was, they provided data that had a negative impact on the image of the actors who were stigmatized with adjectives or words that added negativity to the voices that were considered critical of the government.
Panchana-Macay and Barrera add in their work that a common feature of regimes of this type “was precisely the great prominence of their political leaders as communication actors, and their harsh relationship with independent journalists and private media.”