{
  "title": "Ladder: insult and defamation laws, in South America",
  "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/insult_and_defamation_laws?continent=south-america",
  "filters": {
    "continent": "south-america"
  },
  "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.",
  "tactic": {
    "slug": "insult_and_defamation_laws",
    "name": "Insult and defamation laws",
    "definition": "Laws that make it a crime, not only a civil wrong, to damage a person's reputation, to insult a head of state or a monarch (known as lèse-majesté), or to publish information that a government declares false, including laws against \"fake news\". Convictions can bring fines or prison.",
    "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/tactics/insult_and_defamation_laws"
  },
  "focal_case": "US",
  "count": 1,
  "stages": [
    {
      "stage": "pressure",
      "name": "Pressure",
      "definition": "Using state power short of prosecution to change coverage: regulatory threats, licence reviews, funding cuts, lawsuits by officials, official \"fake news\" or \"foreign agent\" labels, advertising pressure, tax audits.",
      "rungs": [
        {
          "slug": "2013-ecuador-communications-law-supercom",
          "title": "Ecuador's Organic Communication Law creates a regulator that issues hundreds of sanctions against journalists and outlets",
          "occurred_on": "2013-06-25",
          "occurred_on_precision": "day",
          "stage": "pressure",
          "focal_case": false,
          "country": "EC",
          "country_name": "Ecuador",
          "continent": "south-america",
          "rsf": {
            "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
            "year": 2026,
            "rank": 125,
            "of": 180,
            "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 125th of 180",
            "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
          },
          "leader_slug": "rafael-correa",
          "leader_name": "Rafael Correa",
          "what_was_done": "Ecuador's National Assembly passed the Organic Communication Law under President Rafael Correa, creating the Superintendency of Information and Communication (SUPERCOM), a regulator that issued more than 675 sanctions against journalists and media outlets over the following four years.",
          "outcome": "reversed",
          "outcome_on": "2019-02-20",
          "outcome_note": "President Lenin Moreno's government moved to eliminate SUPERCOM in 2018, and the reform of the Communication Law was published in the Official Register on February 20, 2019; Fundamedios director Cesar Ricaurte said the surrounding legal framework nonetheless remained \"intact.\"",
          "ladder_note": null,
          "sources_count": 3,
          "tactic_primary": "funding_and_ownership_pressure",
          "tactics": [
            "funding_and_ownership_pressure",
            "insult_and_defamation_laws"
          ],
          "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-ecuador-communications-law-supercom"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "downloads": {
    "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/insult_and_defamation_laws?continent=south-america&format=csv",
    "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/insult_and_defamation_laws.json?continent=south-america",
    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/insult_and_defamation_laws.md?continent=south-america"
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}