RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The new Ecuadorian president, Guillermo Lasso, on Tuesday sent to the National Assembly his promised plan to repeal the 2013 “communication law” adopted by Correism then in power and which was considered to be a “gag law”

Sent to the head of the legislative branch, Guadalupe Llori, the bill entered today with 13 appendix sheets in which the presidency sets out the reasons for “the discussion and approval” of the bill by the deputies.

“I hope that the National Assembly will give an emergency procedure so that we return to live in complete freedom in Ecuador,” the president said, according to a statement.

And he assures that the bill was drafted in accordance with “international principles of freedom of expression such as the Chapultepec Declaration and the Declaration of Human Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights” and seeks to “ensure that the criminal law is never again used to prosecute controversies arising from freedom of expression”.

It also states that the new regulations “propose to repeal the Communication Law, except for articles which encourage the domestic production of advertising, the regulation of state propaganda and the radio spectrum regime”, and ” strengthens the protection of the inviolability of personal communications and repeals the crime of slander and the violation of acts detrimental to honor ”.

With this, Lasso keeps one of his election promises to end this Correa law, popularly known as the “LOC of 2013”, which provided for severe sanctions against the media and limitations on freedom of expression. .

The media, local and even international organizations have always considered this law as a “gag law” which prevented the free development of freedom of expression in the Andean country. This has put a lot of media on the ropes over the years with stiff fines.

Sunday, the day before his inauguration, Lasso already announced in a forum organized by the International Freedom Foundation, chaired by the writer Mario Vargas Llosa. It would be the first bill he sent to the Assembly.

“The executive decree which repeals the regulations of the Corréisme gag law is ready. I will send to the National Assembly the new Ecuadorian bill on freedom of expression, there is an asset, the most important, and that I will draft myself ”, declared the new president.

And he assured that he wanted it to be “a symbol of change, of course, that we are following”, as well as the next appointment as consul general in Miami of an Ecuadorian journalist persecuted by correism since 2007.