ECUADOREAN President Rafael Correa hit back on Saturday at what he called an international media campaign of disinformation against his country.

Mr Correa, whose left-wing government has faced a violent campaign of destabilisation by US-backed opposition parties for months, accused The Guardian, The Economist and Le Monde of telling “lies,” South American news network Telesur reported.

Writing on the social networking site Twitter, the president told free-market magazine The Economist to show “a little decency” and “stop lying” about Ecuador.

“Come to the country to determine the reality before publishing falsities,” he wrote.

Turning to highbrow liberal paper The Guardian, he urged journalists to “demonstrate some professional integrity. Do some research or at least answer the phone.”

He also accused journalists Didier Fassin and Marc Saint-Upery of French daily Le Monde of telling outright lies.

“Tell these people that if they want to do politics, they should join Pachakutik,” he said, referring to Ecuador’s opposition indigenous party.

Mr Correa urged his compatriots not to stand for such misinformation but to fight back.

“These people should know that we are fed up with their lies, that we don’t believe them! So everyone, let’s send tweets to those liars, to this corrupt international press,” he wrote.

Last week The Economist called South Africa’s ruling African National Congress “clueless and immoral” over a policy discussion document which criticised Washington’s imperialist policy of launching a new cold war against Russia and China, referring particularly to the US-sponsored coup in Ukraine.