Alycia Clark
Blog #10
6:34 pm 04/03/2011
Everyone Makes Mistakes!
Yet another country’s citizens are having problems with having their freedom of speech and expression impeded on by their leaders. In Ecuador, President Rafael Correa is attempting to prosecute those who criticize him. The president filed a criminal libel suit against a journalist Emilio Palacio and three members of the board of directors for the newspaper he works for, on March 21st. The newspaper is a Guayaquil-based paper called El Universo. The president asked for sentences of 3 years, and an additional fine of $50 million US dollars. Along with their personal fines, he asked for El Universo to be fined $30 million US.
The story that has caused all of the trouble, is an opinion piece called “No a las mentiras” or “No to lies”, which was published a month earlier. In this piece Palacio called the President, “the dictator”. It also criticized the president’s role in pardoning the people who were involved in a September 2010 police rebellion. This was important because they accused the president of ordering the police to fire on a hospital full of innocent civilians. President Correa argues that Palacio and the members of the board of directors violated article 493 of the Ecuadorian Criminal Code, and committed a libel against public officials.
The president needs to realize that he may not have made the right decision in this case. I’m not sure of the law’s in Ecuador, but trying to prosecute someone for stating the truth, should not land them in jail. Everyone makes mistakes, and ordering forces to shoot at a building full of innocent civilians, in order to try and spare your own life, is one mistake that should be noticed. If anything the courts should fault the president for what he has done, not what the journalists are doing. Being in a democratic country, these citizens should have the basic human rights to freedom of speech, and expression, whether it is a criticism of the government or not.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/03/31/ecuador-don-t-prosecute-president-s-critics
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