Ecuador TV, launched in 2007, was the first public television channel in the history of Ecuador. As time went by, it was setting up as Rafael Correa’s spokesperson until the end of his term of office in 2017. Correa took several measures in order to ensure the control of news media and favor his staying in power. Following this strategy, he increased the number of state-owned and confiscated media outlets, although Ecuador TV became the most determining due to its geographical scope and audience. This article aims to show the significance of Ecuador TV as means of propaganda through both the description of political, juridical and media contexts, and a relevant case study based on a detailed content analysis of news programs covering the three presidential campaigns that took place during Correa’s term of office. We use both quantitative and qualitative methods taking in consideratio...

The case of the private media confiscated in Ecuador at the beginning of Rafael Correa’s presidency (2007 – 2017) led to complex economic, legal, and professional circumstances for the media companies and their journalists. This paper aims to share a broad and documented perspective on the origin and development of the issue at hand by combining three methods for its approach: the historical method, analysis of media policies and in-depth interviews. Implementing regulatory procedures to devise structures for adjustment and censorship towards private media promoted a media reshaping that resulted on the stockpiling of important nationwide media companies (TV, radio, and magazines) into the state-owned entities umbrella. These confiscations took place at a sensitive time for the banking system that owned several of these media, which had been affected by a severe economic, social, and...