Rafael Correa, who frequently claims the Ecuadorian press is "corrupt" and "lies" and considers it as part of the opposition of his government, dedicated a part of his speech to the press after swearing in as interim president of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).
Correa said that the media "many times don't search for liberty of expression, but only liberty of extortion and manipulation."
Talking to his fellow leaders, he said "we should lose our fear and as countries we need to stand firm against the excesses of the press, we have to take action, we are the ones who win the elections, not the managers of those lucrative businesses that call themselves mass media."
"We propose to establish a centre for analyses and reflection of the information channels to which our co-nationals are exposed through information businesses," he expressed.
Correa said that in highly developed countries, the mass media "would never dare to do what they do here all the time: lie, lie, and lie."
"They (Ecuadorian journalists) manifest that we are against the critical press. They're wrong, we're against the mediocre and corrupt press. Before they denied that this type of press existed; they placed themselves above the good and the bad," he assured
He argued that the media businesses "have believed that simply due to the fact that they have the ability to do so they have a moral right to become censors of all the actions and intentions of democratic governments."
He firmly stated that "the biggest adversary that we've had in the last 30 months of government has been a press with a clear political role, although without any democratic legitimacy."
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