Ecuador has slashed the private sector's share of radio and television frequencies and restricted content, the culmination of a battle between the president and media he accuses of undermining him.



President Rafael Correa has long had tense relations with private news outlets and has come under fire from international rights groups.



Members of the leading opposition party, called Creo, attended Friday's session of congress wearing white handkerchiefs over their mouths, likening the law to a gag order.



"Life is nothing if you lose freedom," read one of the signs they carried.



Correa's Alianza Pais cheap ugg bailey button boots ruling party, which holds an absolute majority of 100 out of 137 seats in congress, was easily able to pass the bill despite criticism that it will tighten the state's control over the media.



The law redistributes broadcast media frequencies and licences, allotting 34 per cent to community media and 33 per cent to the public sector.



The private sector, which currently controls 85.5 per cent of radio frequencies and 71 per cent of television frequencies, will be confined to the remaining 33 per cent.



"Goodbye to the monopoly on the media," said Mauro Andino, ugg bailey button boots the ruling party lawmaker who sponsored the bill.



It also requires Ecuadorian media to dedicate 50 per cent of radio programming and 60 per cent of television programming to locallyproduced content.



The law establishes a regulatory body to restrict violent, sexual or discriminatory content and to sanction and fine violators.



Correa, a populist in the mould of the late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, has long clashed with private media.



In July 2011 a court sent four journalists from the daily El Universo to prison and imposed a $US40 million ($A41.66 million) fine for "defamatory libel" for running opinion articles criticising Correa.



The ruling unleashed a storm of protests by rights groups and media watchdogs, with Human Rights Watch Americas director Jose Miguel Vivanco denouncing what he called a "major setback for free speech in Ecuador".



Correa later pardoned the journalists, but is still battling some media groups that he says are attempting to destabilise his government.



Ecuador has meanwhile granted asylum to Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up at its London embassy for the last year in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on sex crime allegations.



Assange who has portrayed his disclosure of a trove of leaked US documents as the act of a whistleblower intending to reveal official misdeeds says he fears he will be handed over to the United States for prosecution.