Rafael Correa: Free Speech Killer

The President of Ecuador Rafael Correa has come under increasing fire internationally for his perceived moves against free speech in the country.

 Correa has sued El Universo and other newspapers claiming libel and created new media laws to greater increase the scope of the state media apparatus. President Correa claims that he is trying to put the herd on a sensational private industry with a political agenda.

Ironically, one of the new laws Correa championed would seem to benefit his own political career as he prepares for a reelection campaign in 2013.

The National Assembly passed a law last month that placed severe restrictions on what journalists can cover about candidates. Correa defends the action on the grounds that he doesn’t want the media to ally with political campaigns and hold too much sway over political matters.

During Correa’s time in office, state-run media has expanded from one station to fifteen. Worrisome indeed.

Latin America has a lengthy history of autocratic rule and I’m afraid Correa is the next autocrat. When a political figure moves to control the dissemination of the written word, he is violating the key democratic principle of freedom of the press.

Without the freedom of words and ideas, politicians themselves become illegitimate strongmen, relying on the resources of the state to ensure their rule.

Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2012/0124/Ecuador-s-President-Correa-sues-newspaper-and-is-blamed-for-killing-free-speech.

Problem with Democracy: People Not Institutions

This past week, I had to read a bunch of articles, which painted a very bleak picture for democratic governance throughout the Western world. Voter turnouts are decreasing, trust in political parties is in the toilet, and political parties are viewed as unresponsive to the needs of the population…etc.

Yet there’s a basic problem in much of the literature on satisfaction with democracy. The problem is that paper after paper actually measures citizen satisfaction with the running of democratic institutions within various countries rather than the idea of democracy itself.

It would be more apt to say that democratic institutions are in decline. And the reason they are in decline is because we foolishly let ourselves inside of the institutions. It’s not the institutions, but what men do inside of the democratic institutions that has given democracy its’ bad name.

For example, an election is one of the most basic tenets of democratic governance. If the voters elect a candidate that vows to run on a platform of slashing deficits and ending government corruption and he ends up indicted for handing out government contracts to his brother in law, while drinking fine wine and traveling on a fleet of private jets, what does the voter do? They blame the individual candidate or party… not the electoral institution itself.

If, democracy is on the decline, we have no one to blame but our foolish selves.