By Tribune News Service/Quito

Since taking office in 2007, Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has waged war on the media - winning multi-million dollar lawsuits, badgering newspapers and threatening journalists on his weekly television show.
There to document and denounce those attempts to muzzle the media was Fundamedios, a free-speech group founded in 2006. Now it might be Fundamedios’ turn to go silent. Ecuador’s secretary of communications, Secom, has informed the organisation that it is being dissolved for its “indisputably political” messages.
The organisation has been given time to appeal, but the writing is on the wall, said Fundamedios director Cesar Ricaurte.
“They’re keeping up appearances that they’re giving us a chance to defend ourselves,” he said from Quito. “But it’s been clear for a long time that they want to get rid of us.”
The government’s case against Fundamedios rests on its Twitter account that sometimes broadcast links to articles and editorials critical of Correa.
Among the examples cited by Secom are articles about national protests earlier this year and editorials with titles such as “How to shed a decade of authoritarianism, state-ism and timidity.”
In its notice, Secom said it believes “Fundamedios has disseminated messages, alerts and essays with indisputable political overtones.” It also said the organisation had violated its own charter that limits it to “the areas of social communication and journalism.”
Ricaurte said the organisation’s sin was linking to two blogs that cover politics.
“The government doesn’t make the distinction between political proselytising and political journalism,” he said.
The closure of the organisation would violate the government’s obligations to respect and protect the fundamental rights of free speech and freedom of association, Human Rights Watch said.
“The Correa administration wants to punish an organisation for tweeting articles with news and opinions it doesn’t like,” Daniel Wilkinson, the Americas managing director for the group, said in a statement. “This is an egregious abuse of power and a clear example of this government’s authoritarian practices.”
Fundamedios started the year before Correa took office as a think tank that analysed media content in hopes of improving local journalism. With funding from the US Agency for International Development and others, it provided seminars and training. When Correa took office, declaring the media his enemy, Fundamedios began monitoring the administration’s attacks on the press.