The vote was confirmed by two sources who have both stated Correa, 48, had an average of 57-60% of the Ecuadorian people voted 'Si' to all 10 of his proposed reforms. The opposition quickly admitted defeat, without the customary practice in Latin America concerning accusations of fraud and corruption. This is Correa’s eighth straight referendum win an indicator of the popularity of the man often likened to Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez.

Since coming to power in 2007, Correa has won admiration from other leaders in Latin America and around the world for stabilising the countries spiralling debt, becoming the most environmentally friendly nation in Latin America and his refusal to sustain a US military base in La Manta. The removal of this military base won particular praise from the infamous Hugo Chavez.

A key measure in this new wave of referendums is to create a body that will monitor the output of TV and Radio stations, thus tightening the grip on the some of the bias media content produced by some of the opposition media, along with media ownership. In Britain we have the ‘Ofcom’.

Hugo Chavez himself declared war on the media in Venezuela 2007. He revoked the licence for RCTV based in Venezuela, allowing them to just use satellite and cable operations. This particular media conglomerate RCTV were pivotal in the attempted coup five years previously After the overthrow appeared to have succeeded, another coup leader, Vice-Admiral Victor Ramirez Perez, told a journalist: "We had a deadly weapon: the media. And now that I have the opportunity, let me congratulate you." (www.fair.org)

After the coup ex-news director Andres Izarra stated that his superiors had indicated how RCTV tried to influence the public. ‘Zero pro-Chavez, nothing related to Chavez or his supporters... The idea was to create a climate of transition and to start to promote the dawn of a new country."(www.mediaaccuracy.org)

In fact RCTV broke numerous laws in Venezuela and the Venezuela solidarity campaign point out our rules in Britain which RCTV would have broken. ‘Material likely to encourage or incite the commission of crime or to lead to disorder must not be included in television or radio services ‘and that ‘Broadcasters must use their best endeavours so as not to broadcast material that could endanger lives.’ (‘The truth about RCTV - a VIC briefing,’ www.vicuk.org)

Although revoking the licence of an organisation which had clear links to a US-led attempted coup might not seem too extreme, many in the western media lambasted the Venezuelan President for an ‘assault on democracy.

South America is a continent of great divides. The region is politically polarised and the media here has to take ownership of the fact it has a huge role to play in keeping the public informed but calm. The hysteria created by some of the TV and radio stations can lead to protests that can put many innocent protestors’ lives at risk.

The elite-ran broadcasting agencies are a rude throwback to an era of oligarchy, and the opposition media is often dominated by characters that would prefer Correa’s ‘people’s revolution’ quashed for their own financial gain. Correa’s reforms are targeting the ownership of these media organisations to ensure that people who own them have no outside bias.

No doubt western media will condemn the US-educated Correa for the new measures claimed by Correa to be an attempt to "diffuse the power in this country,''. The power to broadcast now is in the hands of the Ecuadorian government to decide. In order to retain the adulation of the international community the reforms cannot be used as a force to strangle the media with regulation for the benefit of their own party, more an attempt to filter out the lies that can be produced when huge financial gains are at stake.