The Organic Law of Communication (LOC) of Ecuador enacted in 2013 – World Countries for Kids
The Organic Law of Communication (LOC), enacted in 2013 was characterized by international organizations engaged in defending freedom of expression as the most repressive communication law on the American continent. Promoted by then-President Rafael Correa, this law brought Ecuador one of the gloomiest times for freedom of expression. Hand in hand with the regulatory entity created by it – the Superintendency of Information and Communication (Supercom), sanctions and fines were imposed on many occasions, classified as “disproportionate” against journalists and the media.
Supercom’s decisions were contentious from the start. The first one it took, for instance, was to compel the cartoonist Xavier Bonilla ‘Bonil’ to “correct” a work. Or, for instance when newspaper El Universo was sanctioned with a fine equivalent to 10% of the average turnover of the last three months (approximately US $350,000) for reportedly not following government orders. According to Supercom, the newspaper did not publish a replica of an article with the headline that the government wanted.
As per a 2017 report by Fundamedios – in the first four years of operation – 1,081 cases were opened against the media and journalists. According to the 2017 study, 675 ended up in sanctions that ranged from making corrections, replicas, delivering copies of programs, administrative measures, public sanctions, among others. As per calculations by Fundamedios, Supercom collected US $531,288 in fines in those years. It was in the midst of this precarious situation that former President Lenín Moreno, Correa’s immediate successor, proposed a series of reforms to the LOC that included the closure of Supercom. Indeed, in December 2018 the first reforms to the LOC were approved, which included the abolition of that entity.
In December 2020, a fresh reform to the law was approved, this time only to Article 5, with which communication was once again regarded as a human right and not a public service. Although this issue had been stipulated in the first reforms, “mysteriously” it wasn’t included in the approved text, said César Ricaurte (director and founder of the NGO Fundamedios). “What this package of reforms does is deactivate the most repressive organisms or aspects of the communication law. The entire scheme of the Superintendency disappears, the administrative sanctions against the media, fines, requests for apologies disappear. All that disappears. But the rest of the law remains,” Ricaurte explained. “That is to say, a large part of the problems of the ‘correísmo’ communication law was that it was an extensive law that tried to address all aspects of social communication and among those there was a series of regulations that did not conform to international standards. So, we always argue that President Moreno’s reform package, although it was very positive, was on the right track, was not complete.”
According to César Ricaurte, it was necessary to address issues linked to public information and access to it. The authority of the government to order national channels was not regulated, the issue of public media or official advertising was not regulated, to name a few. “I mean, there were still some gaps,” Ricaurte said. When Guillermo Lasso took office in May 2021, he proposed to totally repeal the LOC, as he had promised in his campaign. Nevertheless, in the middle of a legal discussion, some voices pointed out that it was impossible to repeal an organic law without having a new law. Lasso proposed the so-called Organic Law of Free Expression and Communication, which was envisioned to completely replace the LOC. This was a framework law and minimalist law, as defined by César Ricaurte, with 14 articles that did not cover the whole subject of communication.
Assembly members Marjorie Chávez Fernando and Villavicencio together with Fundamedios presented the draft Organic Law for the Guarantee, Promotion and Protection of Freedom of the Press and Communication that somehow sought to “complement” the bill sent by Lasso, Ricaurte explained. “In general terms, it is a law that seeks to change a model, a model of prior censorship, direct or indirect, to a model of subsequent liability and a model of self-regulation,” Assemblywoman Marjorie Chávez told LJR. “We have had a bad experience for more than a decade in our country, where the communication regulation model really prioritized self-censorship and this created several problems for the country, including arbitrary and excessive sanctions.”
On 23rd August 2021, the International Relations Commission of the National Assembly, which was commissioned to study these laws, approved the amalgamation of these two bills with the purpose of having a new and unique communication law.