ENGLISH VERSION
El miércoles 11 de marzo, Luis Alvarado Loor periodista y el fotógrafo Roni Zambrano de Diario Súper fueron impedidos de realizar su trabajo en la Base Naval San Eduardo en la ciudad de Guayaquil. Ocurrió cuando el fotógrafo que acompañaba al comunicador tomaba fotos de los exteriores de la base Naval San Eduardo, donde según una denuncia presentada en la fiscalía, por el Oficial de Marina Juan Beltrán, la puerta del departamento financiero fue violentada.
Un oficial, vestido de civil, que se identificó como agente de inteligencia intentó prohibir que las fotografías sean tomadas, lo que produjo un forcejeo y cruce de palabras entre el periodista y el oficial .
En la tarde del mismo día el periodista volvió a la Base Naval para realizar la cobertura sobre la denuncia hecha en la fiscalía pero no se permitió su ingreso.
No se conoce la existencia de alguna ley en el Ecuador que prohíba fotografiar y hacer tomas de los exteriores de las bases militares.
Photographer Roni Zambrano stopped from photographing military base; member of parliament threatens to sue «El Universo» newspaper
On 11 March 2009, Luis Alvarado Loor and Roni Zambrano, a journalist and a photographer with «Diario Súper», were stopped from carrying out their work in the San Eduardo Naval Base, in the city of Guayaquil.
The incident took place when the photographer attempted to take pictures of the base’s exterior areas where the door to the financial department had been forced open, according to a report presented to the Public Prosecutor’s Office by Navy Officer Juan Beltrán.
An officer, dressed as a civilian, who identified himself as an intelligence agent, stopped Zambrano from taking pictures of the base, which led to a struggle between the journalists and the officer.
Alvarado Loor returned to the Naval Base that afternoon to insist that they be allowed to continue with their work but he was not allowed in.
There are no laws in Ecuador forbidding individuals from photographing or filming the exterior areas of military bases.
In a separate incident on 10 March, Betty Amores, Member of Parliament for the Alianza País party, and president of the National Assembly’s Labour and Social Commission, threatened to sue the newspaper «El Universo» for having criticised in an article the latest amendments to the Social Security Law being reviewed by the National Assembly.
The congresswoman accused the newspaper of «lying shamelessly».
President Rafael Correa has been criticising the newspaper in his Saturday radio programme since 2007. He has even gone as far as to urge the public not to buy it.