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An investigative reporter for the world’s largest news organization has been expelled from Ecuador for reporting on a U.S.-government-commissioned study of government corruption.
In a dramatic show of force this week, the independent Ecuadorian newspaper El Comercio on Tuesday published a front-page editorial calling on President Rafael Correa to resign over the report published by The New York Times last week on alleged corruption in his inner circle, and it included a photo depicting Correa meeting with a U.S. official last week.
This morning the newspaper, which has long been critical of Correa, printed a picture of the president visiting the U.S. Consulate in Quito with a group of officials at the State Department. The image was also accompanied by a text:
“When the world’s journalists have to flee like this, it is an indication that the public is unaware of a true and complete corruption in Ecuador.”
The editorial also accused The Washington Post of failing to disclose that it had broken with tradition and declined to publish Correa’s full interview with the newspaper.
“The world’s press has been unable to publish the interview with Correa with the same honesty as that shown by the Ecuadorian press. The journalistic tradition of honesty demands that we publish a full interview of the president in which he clearly and openly exposes the actions of the U.S. government through its agents,” the editorial said.
In the editorial, published on the front page of the newspaper’s front page this morning, the newspaper called on President Correa to quit and said he had “chosen to lie to the journalists of Ecuador and his own people”:
“We want to congratulate the newspaper El Comercio for its bravery in publishing this front page editorial, which calls on the president of Ecuador and the country to resign. The public has a right to know that Ecuadorans do not accept the false and misleading