Statement from Pichincha Universal

As it is public knowledge, Radio Pichincha Universal activities remain suspended since October 9 due to a sanctioning administrative process that ARCOTEL started against our media outlet. Similarly, the State Prosecutor General’s Office raided our facilities for a prior investigation for the alleged crime of instigation during the “En La Oreja” program that was broadcasted by our FM signal, Monday to Friday, from 09:00 to 10:00.

The most surprising thing is that the Prosecutor’s Office investigates this from the “ORGANIZED, TRANSNATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DELINQUENCY’S OFFICE.”

Given this, we inform public opinion:

• Radio Pichincha Universal is a public media outlet and one of its responsibilities is citizen participation without discrimination or exclusion, much less with censorship, so our microphones have always remained open for the people to express their opinion openly, within established in our Constitution.

• The program -with this format of citizen participation and open microphones- has operated since the beginning of our radio station activities in 2011. And it has always been respectful with people’s points of view; it has rejected offenses and insults. We have never allowed abuse to provoke violence situations or something like that.

• Washington Yepez has been the host of this program for four years. During this time, he has directed the program with total ethics, respecting rules, codes, and principles that the Law establishes.

• During the time that we have broadcasted this program, it has not received any sanction, since it is a space of opinion in which guests are responsible for their words and Pichincha Universal has publicly emphasized it.

• We do not exercise prior censorship before our invited people’s opinions since each one is responsible for their expressions.

• We stress that the space that authorities mention took place on October 3 and was attended by Luisa Maldonado, a guest who has participated in seven programs as an interviewee (on Thursdays, from August 22, 2019) and who does not represent our media outlet, nor is an official or radio’s employee.

And today, October 16, we are surprised again that Prosecutor’s Office asks us for names, surnames, ID numbers and position of all the people who work here, in addition to those who were at the time of the raid, which creates a condition of penal investigation subjects for the sole fact of being present in a legal action.

This has generated an uncertainty atmosphere and the feeling of intimidation among the workers of our media outlet, since the work of our journalists, administrative and operational personnel has always been carried out with ethics and transparency.