The Ecuadorian National Assembly have passed changes made by President Rafael Correa to the country's Democracy Code restricting media outlets from publishing positive or negative material about political candidates in the run up to elections, due to take place on January 20, 2013.

The changes come into effect on February 4 and prohibit news media from directly or indirectly promoting any kind of material that carries positive or negative messages about any candidate, electoral preference or political opinion.

The press freedom organisation Fundamedios has condemned the new law, saying that it "represents the imposition of censorship in advance on the content of news media". The group notes that "the legislation due to come into effect contains ambiguous language that will make journalistic work subject to the discretion of the National Assembly".

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