Ecuador: cartoonist is first to face defamatory charges under communications law

knightcenter.utexas.edu reported that the Ecuadorian government has asked cartoonist Xavier Bonilla, known as Bonil, to appear before the Superintendent of Information and Communication and explain the contents of an editorial cartoon published in newspaper El Universo that officials are calling defamatory. Seven months after Ecuador’s new Communications Law came into effect and created the office of the Superintendent, Bonil is the first media worker to be summoned by the new agency.

El Universo published Bonil’s cartoon on Dec. 28, which depicted a police search the day before at the house of Fernando Villavicencio — a journalist and advisor to an opposition legislator — and alluded to police corruption. Read Article