Ecuador The Media
Broadcasting in Quichua over Radio Latacunga in Cotopaxi
Province
Courtesy Inter-American Foundation (Miguel Sayago)
Although the 1979 Constitution accords Ecuadorians the right to
freedom of opinion and expression of thought, media ownership has
remained concentrated in the hands of a few large interests. In the
late 1980s, all media were privately controlled, except the
National Radio (Radio Nacional), which was operated by the
government's ministerial-level National Communications Secretariat
(Secretaría Nacional de Comunicaciones--Senac), previously called
the National Secretariat for Public Information (Secretaría
Nacional de Información Pública--Sendip) under the Febres Cordero
administration. The government, however, controlled the allocation
of radio and television frequencies. Historically, most media
owners endorsed the political status quo and gave tacit support to
right-wing governments and even to dictatorships. In the 1980s,
however, conservative interests were less dominant in radio than in
television and the written press.
The Febres Cordero government used the media systematically in
an effort to gain media support for its free-market economic
policies, and in the process it infringed on press freedom. For
example, in late 1984 the government temporarily closed five radio
stations--four in Guayaquil and one in Quito--after they broadcast
Guayaquil mayor Abdalá Bucaram's censure of Febres Cordero. The
government also used economic means of pressure, such as suspending
its substantial public-sector advertising in the center-left daily
Hoy and the monthly magazine Nueva, as well as
pressuring private banks and companies not to advertise in these
publications. As a result, the independent media initially omitted
or toned down criticism of the government. However, two prestigious
inter-American media associations criticized the Febres Cordero
government for alleged violations of press freedom. In a report
released in March 1985, the Inter-American Press Association
accused the government of intolerance toward the independent press
and a lack of objectivity in government press releases. In
addition, many opposition journalists complained that the
government was using legal or pseudo-legal devices and pretexts to
reduce further the already limited space available to the minority
press. In 1987 opposition radio and television stations continued
to experience government attempts to stifle the media. The ability
of the government to pressure state and private companies to
discriminate against the independent media diminished following the
erosion of Febres Cordero's standing and influence.
On taking office in August 1988, Borja vowed to uphold freedom
of the press and appointed various journalists to high-level
governmental posts. The Senac, composed of new members appointed by
Borja, undertook efforts to make the government accessible to the
media and to promote freedom of the press. Senac also abolished the
progovernment simulcasts initiated by the Febres Cordero
administration and allowed Channel 5 in Quito to resume
broadcasting in August 1988, after being closed for four years.
Ecuador had ten principal television stations in the late
1980s. The country's commercial radio stations numbered over 260,
including 10 cultural and 10 religious stations. The "Voice of the
Andes" station had operated for more than fifty years as an
evangelical Christian shortwave radio service supported largely by
contributions from the United States.
Ecuador had only thirty daily newspapers in the late 1980s. The
newspapers with the largest circulations, El Comercio and
El Universo, were published in Quito and Guayaquil
respectively. Founded in the 1920s, they were closely connected
with each city's small but powerful business community in the
1980s. Quito and Guayaquil each had four dailies. Quito's largest
newspaper, El Comercio, was conservative and had a
circulation of 130,000. El Comercio also owned an evening
newspaper, #Ultimas Notícias. The Quito-based Hoy,
founded in the early 1980s, had a circulation in 1987 of between
35,000 and 40,000. Guayaquil's El Universo was independent
and had a circulation of between 120,000 and 190,000 on weekdays
and 225,000 on Sundays. Guayaquil's second newspaper,
Expreso, published evening newspapers in both cities:
Extra in Guayaquil and La Hora in Quito. Some ten
international news agencies had bureaus in Quito.
The principal weekly periodicals that covered political and
economic affairs were Quito's La Calle, with a circulation
of 20,000, and Guayaquil's Análisis Semanal and
Vistazo. Nueva, with a circulation of between 12,000
and 14,000, was founded in the early 1970s as an alternative
magazine oriented to those sectors of the population that were
under-represented by the traditional press, such as trade union
workers, intellectuals, and Indians.
Among Ecuador's ten principal publishers, only Editorial
Claridad and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, published
books on politics. According to the United States Department of
State in the late 1980s, there was no political censorship of
domestic or foreign books, films, or works of art, and no
government interference with academic inquiry.
Data as of 1989
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