Empresa Publica de Comunicación del Ecuador (Comunica EP)

Ecuador’s state media landscape has been through repeated upheaval. The current group descends from the Correa-era public-media system: RTVECUADOR was created in 2009 and 2010, and in 2016 it was absorbed into El Telégrafo EP, which was renamed Empresa Pública Medios Públicos de Comunicación del Ecuador (Medios Públicos EP). President Lenín Moreno ordered Medios Públicos EP into liquidation in May 2020, and Executive Decree 1160 of September 2020 created Comunica EP by separating out the operating media activities, that is, Ecuador TV, Pública FM, and El Telégrafo as an internet outlet, under a new public company that began operating in 2021.

Media assets

Television: Ecuador TV

Radio: Publica FM

Publishing: El Telegrafo

Ownership and governance

Comunica EP was created by Executive Decree 1160 of 26 September 2020, which preserved Ecuador TV, Pública FM, and El Telégrafo under the new entity. Under Article 315 of Ecuador’s Constitution, the State may establish public companies to deliver strategic services, and the country’s Organic Law of Public Companies requires such entities to operate under a board of directors and a general manager.

Decree 1160 places the company under an executive-controlled board: the head of the Presidency’s communications secretariat, or delegate, chairs it; the president of the public-companies coordinating body, or delegate, sits on it; and the head of the national planning body, or delegate, acts as the Presidency’s representative. Control of the board therefore rests with the President, which is the core fact behind the State-Controlled classification.

Leadership has turned over frequently, in step with the political cycle. The economist Samia Tacle was appointed general manager in March 2023. In May 2025, at the start of President Daniel Noboa’s second term, the government named the journalist and former assemblywoman Marcela Holguín, once a prominent figure in Correa’s Revolución Ciudadana, as general manager. Holguín resigned on 18 November 2025, days after the government lost every question in the 16 November referendum, as part of a wider wave of departures across Noboa’s cabinet. After her resignation, the board appointed Grace Vanessa Cordero Loor as acting general manager on 21 November 2025, and official 2026 company documents continued to identify her as Gerente General Subrogante, so Comunica EP entered 2026 under interim leadership. That churn at the top, with managers named and removed in step with the political calendar, is itself a marker of the company’s subordination to the government.

A parallel and unresolved process hangs over the group. The old Medios Públicos EP has remained formally in liquidation since 2020, and in June 2025 Noboa extended the deadline for winding it up, with remaining assets to transfer to the Ministry of Telecommunications. Comunica EP itself continued operating Ecuador TV, Pública FM, and El Telégrafo through 2026, but the long-running liquidation underscores how contested the future shape of Ecuador’s public media has been across successive governments.

Source of funding and budget

Comunica EP relies principally on public resources, supplemented by limited commercial revenue from advertising and services. In February 2023, Primicias reported that the company had spent about US$5m up to November 2022, received about US$3.1m from operations and state budget allocations, and accumulated losses of about US$1.9m.

In 2023, Comunica EP’s approved budget was about US$5.67m, while sales revenue reached about US$1.37m, and its 2025 accountability report records an approved 2025 budget of about US$4.83m. The company’s own reporting notes difficulties in regularising early financial statements after the institutional split from Medios Públicos EP, so early budget figures should be treated cautiously. The overall picture is clear: Comunica EP lacks a substantial independent commercial base and remains structurally dependent on public resources.

Editorial independence

Comunica EP operates under the control of the Presidency, and its editorial output has traditionally aligned with the government of the day. Under President Moreno, critical coverage of the administration was notably scarce, and journalists hired during the Correa years were removed from the organization. A content analysis commissioned for an earlier SMM report found clear pro-government bias during Moreno’s tenure, with heavy coverage of his activities and unfavourable developments played down. That pattern of government alignment continued under President Guillermo Lasso, whose restructuring of the company brought further large-scale dismissals, and the frequent, politically timed changes of manager since have reinforced the same dynamic.

A significant legal change came in November 2022, when Ecuador enacted reforms to the Organic Communications Law, rolling back several of the restrictive mechanisms associated with the 2013 “gag law”, including tools for prior censorship. That improved the general press-freedom framework, but it did not create a binding editorial-independence safeguard for Comunica EP. Academic research concludes that the company’s dependence on government funding continues to constrain its editorial independence, and neither the entity’s governing statute nor its code of ethics explicitly guarantees the editorial independence of its outlets. SMM found no independent evaluation or oversight mechanism that safeguards their editorial autonomy.

AI and digital policy

Comunica EP’s outlets are now digital-first, with El Telégrafo operating purely online, Ecuador TV distributing through open signal and streaming, and Pública FM combining broadcast and web audiences. The group has also pursued cooperation with foreign state media, including an information-exchange agreement with China’s Xinhua and training and cooperation activities with Turkey’s TRT. SMM found no dedicated editorial AI-governance policy specific to Comunica EP, and Ecuador had no comprehensive binding artificial-intelligence law fully in force as of mid-2026, though it has a national AI strategy and an AI bill before the National Assembly.

Classification rationale

Comunica EP is classified State-Controlled because it is a state-owned public company whose board is chaired and controlled by the Presidency, whose general manager is appointed by the government, which depends predominantly on public funding, and which has no binding guarantee of editorial independence. Its output has aligned with successive administrations, and its leadership has changed in step with the political cycle. It is not an autonomous public-service broadcaster insulated from the government of the day.

The classification does not turn on which party holds power. The company served the Moreno, Lasso, and Noboa governments in turn, and the political character of its management has shifted with each, most strikingly in the 2025 appointment and then post-referendum resignation of a former Correísta manager under a government opposed to Correísmo. Its State-Controlled status is unchanged for 2026.

July 2026