This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

A court in Ecuador has jailed a journalist and three newspaper executives on a charge of libelling the country's president Rafael Correa. It also imposed fines of £18m on the quartet and £6m on the daily paper, El Universo.

Columnist Emilio Palacio and the three executives - Carlos, Cesar and Nicolas Perez - were sentenced to three years in prison.

The charges sprang from a column by Palacio in February this year that questioned the propriety of an army raid to rescue Correa from striking policemen.

It referred to Correa as "the dictator" and insinuated that he was guilty of crimes against humanity for having allegedly ordered supporters to open fire on a hospital during the strike. At least 10 people died in unrest at the time.

Palacio told reporters that the sentence was "a barbarity" and vowed to appeal.

He has the support of several press freedom watchdogs. Alison Bethel McKenzie, director of the International Press Institute, said: "We are outraged by the court's sentence, and we condemn it as completely out of proportion to the 'crime' committed...

"The excessive nature of yesterday's sentence demonstrates the continuing need in Latin America and around the world to eliminate archaic – and illegitimate – criminal defamation laws."

And Gonzalo Marroquin, president of the US-based Inter-American Press Association, called the court's decision a "serious blow to the most essential principles of freedom of information".

Sources: IPI/Al-Jazeera