Ecuadorian journalist Jun Sarmiento sentenced to prison for 'discrediting' local official
November 20, 2020 10:16 AM EST
Bogotá, November 20, 2020 – Ecuadorian authorities should not contest journalist Juan Sarmiento’s appeal of a recent criminal conviction for critical comments about a local politician, and the country should remove speech laws from its penal code, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
On November 12, the Justice Court of Napo, in central Ecuador, upheld a lower court decision convicting Sarmiento of making “expressions of discredit or dishonor,” an offense under Ecuador’s criminal code, and sentence him to 10 days in prison, according to news reports, the Quito-based press freedom organization Fundamedios, and the court decision, which CPJ reviewed.
Sarmiento is the director and host of the nightly news and opinion program “Tendencia Digital“ which airs on Facebook and several TV stations in Napo, he told CPJ via messaging app. The lower court and the Justice Court’s rulings refer to a series of Sarmiento’s posts on social media in April and May 2020, as well as episodes of “Tendencia Digital” shared on his personal Facebook account, as the basis for the charges, according to the court documents.
The charges relate to comments and news reports Sarmiento posted about Napo Governor Patricio Espíndola’s alleged mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to those court documents. Sarmiento frequently posts political commentary and links to his reporting on his personal Facebook account.
Sarmiento told CPJ he plans to file a constitutional writ of appeal to contest the court’s decision. If that appeal is not accepted, he will be arrested and sent to a prison in the nearby town of Archidona, at a facility that also houses violent criminals, he said.
“By convicting journalist Juan Sarmiento for ‘dishonoring’ a local official and sentencing him to prison, Ecuadorian courts are sending the dangerous message that authorities cannot be questioned for their actions relating to the coronavirus pandemic,” said CPJ South and Central America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. “Ecuadorian authorities should not contest his appeal, and must urgently implement reforms to eliminate archaic criminal defamation provisions still on the books. Defamation complaints against the press should be settled in civil courts.”
More:
https://cpj.org/2020/11/ecuadorean-journalist-juan-sarmiento-sentenced-to-prison-for-discrediting-local-official/
