LOJA, Ecuador, May 20 (UPI) -- A newspaper in Ecuador has been fined for not covering an act by a city mayor, citing all mayoral acts should be considered matters of public interest and covered by the media.
The La Hora media outlet was fined $3,540 for not covering an accountability act by the city of Loja Mayor José Bolívar Castillo. The newspaper is appealing the ruling.
Ecuador's communication law punishes "the deliberate and recurrent failure to disseminate issues of public interest" and considers it an act of censorship.
"Reports of mayors should be made known to the public, every city in the country should receive such information," Carlos Ochoa, head of the Superintendency of Communication, said. "It is necessary that outlets count on sufficient journalists to cover information of public importance."
Ochoa also suggested that media outlets will be brought to a hearing, in a case that accuses the media of not giving "sufficient coverage" of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's visit to Chile, where he received an honorary doctorate degree.
The Superintendent of Communications has issued 113 sanctions against the media in Ecuador.
La Hora has received international support, including from newspapers Clarin of Argentina and ABC from Spain.
The Colombian Association of Newspaper Editors and Media condemned "the continuing sanctions against media and journalists that have been imposed on Ecuador for disseminating content and yet not divulge the contents that the executive branch seeks to impose."
