Ecuadorian legislator denounces group of journalists

andes.info.ec reported that political legislator María Augusta Calle denounced a group of Ecuadorian journalists who work in private media for publishing information plagiarized from the newspaper, El País, from Spain, and to the Miami Herals referring to a supposed link between her and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC, Spanish acronym). The assembly member made reference to the newspapers Expreso, El Comercio, El Universo, and Tiempo de Cuenca, as well as some private television channels in Ecuador.

“I demand that the journalists who so quickly wrote this and more in entire pages tell me from where they received this information, that they give me the source. I will await their reply because I myself can prove it: information was released in the newspaper El País, from Spain, and the Miami Herald. They copied it here and never said that it was from the Miami Herald or from El País, they made the citizenry believe that it was a journalistic investigation and what they did was plagiarize, that is the quality of journalists that we have,” stated the reelected assembly member in an interview on GamaTV.

The District Attorney of Colombia rejected the accusation against the assembly member after not finding any evidence against her. The report clearing María Augusta Calle of any connection says: “The full identity of María Augusta Calle Andrade, her connection with parliament and her activities as a journalist in the neighboring country has been obtained on behalf of the Ecuadorian authorities (…) Reviewing financial reports, no irregularity or divergence of funds has been found for the sustaining and/or support of the terrorist organization FARC.”

With this antecedent, María Augusta Calle said that more than half of the press notices were about this topic. “They said that I had loaned my account so that the FARC could manage their money,” she said. During the investigation by the Colombian Judicial Police, they were not able to determine that the citizen, Calle Andrade, is linked to or known by the aliases “Alicia,” “La Pelos,” “Platos,” etc. within said organization.

The parliament member confirmed that none of the news outlets have called her to get her version after releasing the notice. “No one has called me or published anything. How are they going to do this? How are they going to publish the results of the only serious investigation, carried out by the Colombian District Attorney?” she asked.

In regard to the topic, in the newspaper, El Universo, they published three lines in their digital version, not in the printed version; in the Expreso and El Comercio, three lines, as well as in the summary of the Enlace Ciudadano.

“Since 2008, I have incessantly sent letters requesting a rectification, asking for a response, telling them to show me what they are saying, but I’ve never had a response (…) I am patiently awaiting that the Unión Nacional de Periodistas (National Union of Journalists), the Colegio de Periodistas y Fundamedios (Association of Journalists and Fundamedios) ask that the rectification is made and apologies requested. Look, Mr. César Ricaurte, I am waiting for your work to defend my honor tainted in the private media,” concluded Calle. Read Article