Miami Herald – Andres Oppenheimer: Ecuador’s license to steal

This writer says that the referendum, if successful, would seriously curtail the media’s ability to conduct investigative journalism:

I have seen many strange things over the past three decades in Latin America, but Ecuador’s national referendum on May 7 may have been a first: Voters supported a proposal to censure the press, which will encourage government corruption.

I’m not kidding. The 10-point referendum proposed and won by President Rafael Correa included several provisions that amount to giving government officials a license to steal. The clauses would restrict freedom of the press, effectively silencing what in recent times has been Ecuador’s only weapon against government corruption.

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