Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa declared victory this past weekend on a controversial referendum for social and government reforms, clearing the path for what critics claim is an attempt to garner more power and hinder press freedoms.

On May 7, 2011, Ecuadorians voted on ten unrelated issues and the proposed referendum could drastically alter judiciary processes, restrict media ownership, outlaw casino gambling, and prohibit killing animals for entertainment.

Analysts claim that the the win is a huge boost in power for President Correa.

“Today, we made an important step toward peace, democracy and a new motherland,” he said after the first results came out.””They’ve been saying it’s totalitarian… [a word] used for a state in which things are done by force. We’re doing this democratically.”

According to a Cedatos Gallup poll only 16 percent of the respondents knew about the substance and effects of the proposals, but all ten were approved.

The restriction of media ownership is one of the most contentious issues and has drawn a large amount of criticism from Ecuadorian and international human rights activists alike.

If approved, one measure would prohibit media companies from making investments outside of their industry, preventing the formation of large private media/ entertainment conglomerates like Time-Warner or News Corporation in the United States.

The second measure would establish a council to regulate content that was deemed discriminatory, sexual, or violent. “The language of the provision appears to allow the council to unilaterally set potential penalties,” writes the Committee to Protect Journalists. “We believe that vague provision would open the door to government censorship”.

Correa’s relationship with the media had already drawn international attention. He publicly vilifies those who question his policies of bias and inaccuracy on a regular basis:

Correa told Reuters last week:

Our greatest rival in this plebiscite is not the opposition. Our biggest rivals are the media, who come up with a fresh scandal on a daily basis

Last month, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued a statement condemning Correa for suing the newspaper El Universaro for slander. Correa sued the directors of the newspaper and its opinion editor Emilio Palacio in March over a column entitled “NO to the Lies,” which referred to Correa several times as a “dictator.”

He demanded a $50 million fine for El Universo executives Carlos, Cesar and Nicolas Perez and by Palacio. Correa also wants these four men to spend three years in prison as punishment.

Censorship and restrictions on media are frequent in Latin American countries, where the move from historically based dictatorships to democratic rule has resulted in a rise of media related oppression.

Consider Venezuela, where Hugo Chavez told cable companies last year to abandon RCTV International because it refused to air his speeches. Chavez has also refused licenses to two small TV channels and 38 radio stations — four of them the same week in March that Argentina’s University of La Plata honored him for journalistic excellence. He also prohibits Venezuelans from publishing the Bolívar-dollar exchange rate.

The effects of the hemispheric government restrictions on media was explored by Frank La Rue last week in Washington D.C. during UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day.

Mr. La Rue, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, discussed how the plurality of media sources permits citizens to accurately draw conclusions on their government.

“The press is accountable to society and to the readers on what they choose they should believe in and (also) what they analyze,” he stated.

By controlling and censoring new information and communication technologies (ICTs) governments contend the Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression, Mr. La Rue argued. The Internet is an amazing tool for citizens to express legitimate grievances and to demand reforms, democracy and transparency.

He compared the use of ICTs and the vast reach of the Internet to public squares found in most Latin American communities known as ”la Plaza Pública”.  ICT’s power and broadness can serve as a public space to encourage the facilitation of open conversation about governments—alternatively, it can be used by politicians to heighten censorship and defamation.

Mr. La Rue asserted:

I would like to remind all States that the strongest governments are those that allow democratic participation of citizens, and diverse views to be expressed openly.

President Correa’s recently approved referendum to restrict media ownership could violate the constitutional and international guarantees for press freedoms discussed by Mr. La Rue and others, disadvantaging the democratic values inherent in Ecuadorian citizens.