LA PERCEPCIÓN DE LOS NIVELES DE AUTONOMÍA PROFESIONAL DE LOS PERIODISTAS DE ECUADOR

Abstract

This article shows the results about the perception of the level of professional autonomy of Ecuadorian journalists in their daily work and major constraints that are based on influence factors. This study is part of the project Culture Journalism of Ecuador ( cje) in which 31 journalists within 6 media (public, private and communitarian) were interviewed. Professional autonomy is one of the main values that determine the level of professionalism in journalism, which is directly linked to the concepts of self-regulation, freedom of speech and independence. This situation causes that influences perceived by the journalists —from the actor level, institution level and system level (Oller & Meier, 2012)— directly affct their professional freedom of action and, therefore, their rates of autonomy. The results show that most of the journalists interviewed considered to have complete freedom in their media and that the main constraints come from the system levels, specifically the current legislation in communication.