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Power versus the press
For the past month in Ecuador there has been a battle over regulation of the media. It has been in the front pages of the newspapers most of that period, and a leading daily, El Comercio, referred to the fight as one for "defense of human rights and the free practice of journalism." This was in response to the government's closing down of a major TV station, Teleamazonas, for three days beginning December 22.
International organizations such as the Washington-based Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists joined the Ecuadorian media in denouncing the government's actions, with the CPJ calling it "nothing but an attempt to intimidate the media into silence."
But as is generally the case when private media monopolies are challenged by progressive governments, the view presented by these powerful corporations and their allies in the US is one-sided and over-simplified. Ecuador, with a democratic left government, is facing the same challenge faced by all of the left-of-centre governments in the region: the private media is dominated by heavily monopolised, often politically partisan, right-wing forces opposed to the progressive economic and social reforms that electorates voted for. All of these governments have responded to that challenge.