# Ladder: insult and defamation laws, in South America

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.

The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.

Narrow with ?stage= (restrict, pressure, punish, silence, eliminate), ?continent=, ?from= and ?to= (year or date).

## Pressure

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.

| Date | Country | Head of government | What was done | Outcome | Sources |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 25 June 2013 | [Ecuador](https://thewaronnews.com/countries/ec) ([RSF 2026 rank: 125th of 180](https://rsf.org/en/index)) | [Rafael Correa](https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/rafael-correa) | 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. [Full entry](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-ecuador-communications-law-supercom) | Reversed (20 February 2019) | 3 |

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All ladders: https://thewaronnews.com/ladders. United States chapter: https://thewaronnews.com/united-states

Source page: https://thewaronnews.com/ladders/insult_and_defamation_laws?continent=south-america. The War On News, CC BY 4.0.