Political Quotes

“I want to call the Senate's attention to a situation I have spoken about previously, which is the ongoing crackdown by the Correa Government on what little remains of the independent media in Ecuador. One of the things we have come to expect is that the press--and civil society organizations that expose corruption and challenge the officially sanctioned version of reality--are the first casualties in countries whose leaders are determined to remain in power at any cost. Ecuador is a prime example. In 2013, President Rafael Correa issued a decree granting the government broad powers to intervene in the operations of nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, including dissolving groups on the vague grounds that they have ``compromise[d] public peace'' or have engaged in activities that were not listed when they registered with the government. A modified version of the decree, which maintains broad powers to close down NGOs, was adopted in August 2015. On September 7, Ecuador's Communications Ministry opened an administrative process to ``dissolve'' Fundamedios, an organization that monitors freedom of expression in the country. According to information publicly available, the government contends that Fundamedios engaged in political activities by publishing information critical of the government--information that would be protected speech in any democracy. Every politician knows that unfavorable press attention comes with the territory.…”