While still largely inconclusive...the most interesting news may have transpired in the shadow of the "sexier" Unasur story. A detailed Q&A interview was conducted and printed by El Comercio, with Ecuadorian Assemblyman, Rolando Panchana. Panchana is heading efforts to define the legal framework for the Communications Law ...or ...Communications Act, as I will refer to it. It wasn't so much that the piece shed concrete light on the issue, as the potential for some things to be taken out of context by the opposition. I am actually not going to start that debate... but rather point to the limited facts of the Q&A session. It was a detailed and reasonably "hard-hitting" Q&A. The replies from Panchana were very restrained and "political" in nature. The overwhelming sense one gets from the dialog is that currently, the law is either being very flexible or is very incomplete, depending on whether one's penchant is for emphasizing the positive or negative. Perhaps, most notably, there is a "yearly registration" procedure proposed for media outlets, which could lead to operational licenses being reviewed every year...leading to the possibility that said licenses could be revoked (or approved). Again, vague or flexible ... depending on how one chooses to perceive the comments. Panchana couched many of his replies to the "tougher questions" [quotes mine] in a legal framework, complete with specific citations to support the legal basis. *I am not an attorney*, but a laymen's review of the quoted passages seemed to provide legal continuity and consistency. Nothing overtly alarmist or concerning in any of the Panchana comments...but nothing detailed enough to be comforting either. Attribution: http://ww1.elcomercio.com/noticiaEC.asp?id_noticia=304652&id_seccion=3 .
