Its worth noting that most of the press issues in Ecuador centre on national politics. The big news organisations are highly partisan (fox-news like), pro-right wing and anti-Correa. Correa won a big law suit against one last year for libel (mentioned in your link). Is this state-enforced intimidation of journalists? I don't think there is an easy answer...
(Not trying to put my own opinion on this, just state some complexities of the issue)
In that case, which was decried by Ecudorean media as a crackdown on press freedom, the journalist wrote Correa "...ordered fire at will and without warning against a hospital full of civilians and innocent people..." and "committed crimes against humanity". Correa later pardoned the defendants. This was in relation to an attempted coup where the police force trapped Correa in a hospital.
Also important to note owners of the media in Ecuador are opposed to Correa since he does not support their interests.
As Chomsky said about this incident: Can you imagine if a coup against the President, supported by the press and executed by the police occurred in the United States? They would be put against a wall and shot.
So while there may be problems with press freedom in Ecuador they should be put in the proper context and investigated more carefully than a "freedom of the press index" can convey.
If he was willing to stay in a country with poor support for human rights then he could have just stayed in the U.S. and kept his head down.
If human rights is really what he's about then I'm not sure how raising Chinese prestige as a refugee while lowering U.S. prestige is really helpful to the overall cause.
He just needed a place where he could do this crucial work before being apprehended. The world seems to see Hong Kong as China, which is wrong and unfortunate -- HK is definitely its own deal.
He said exactly why he came forward in the first interview -- that since he was breaking the law, he owed Americans an explanation. The guy is top notch.
So maybe he could have left a README.nfo in with the leaked documents? He wouldn't have needed to unveil himself that way and still been able to explain himself.
That's true. But this way is much more powerful. He's acting according to his principles, and not sneaking around. He's like the complete opposite of his enemies.
You're right, of course. But I mean he's shown himself. He wants to blow the whistle, and everything he's doing is consistent with that. He's doing everything as much on the up-and-up as possible without putting himself directly into the hands of the criminals he's exposing.
Comments
Here it would be worth mentioning Ecuador's track record on press freedom, which is among the worst in the world:
http://www.cpj.org/americas/ecuador/
Its worth noting that most of the press issues in Ecuador centre on national politics. The big news organisations are highly partisan (fox-news like), pro-right wing and anti-Correa. Correa won a big law suit against one last year for libel (mentioned in your link). Is this state-enforced intimidation of journalists? I don't think there is an easy answer...
(Not trying to put my own opinion on this, just state some complexities of the issue)
In that case, which was decried by Ecudorean media as a crackdown on press freedom, the journalist wrote Correa "...ordered fire at will and without warning against a hospital full of civilians and innocent people..." and "committed crimes against humanity". Correa later pardoned the defendants. This was in relation to an attempted coup where the police force trapped Correa in a hospital.
Also important to note owners of the media in Ecuador are opposed to Correa since he does not support their interests.
As Chomsky said about this incident: Can you imagine if a coup against the President, supported by the press and executed by the police occurred in the United States? They would be put against a wall and shot.
So while there may be problems with press freedom in Ecuador they should be put in the proper context and investigated more carefully than a "freedom of the press index" can convey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Correa#Lawsuit_against_t...
Correa pardoned the defendants who were later brought back up on civil charges in the same matter.
In other words, there's press freedom in Ecuador, as long as the press doesn't threaten the government of Ecuador.
The issue is independence from the US. I'm sure Assange is painfully aware of Ecuador's deficiencies.
Isn't "this bad thing is OK as long as the good guys are doing it" exactly what Snowden was complaining about?
No. Nobody's saying it's OK. We're just talking about what countries are possible refuges from the US.
If he was willing to stay in a country with poor support for human rights then he could have just stayed in the U.S. and kept his head down.
If human rights is really what he's about then I'm not sure how raising Chinese prestige as a refugee while lowering U.S. prestige is really helpful to the overall cause.
He just needed a place where he could do this crucial work before being apprehended. The world seems to see Hong Kong as China, which is wrong and unfortunate -- HK is definitely its own deal.
He also could have leaked the info anonymously.
He said exactly why he came forward in the first interview -- that since he was breaking the law, he owed Americans an explanation. The guy is top notch.
So maybe he could have left a README.nfo in with the leaked documents? He wouldn't have needed to unveil himself that way and still been able to explain himself.
That's true. But this way is much more powerful. He's acting according to his principles, and not sneaking around. He's like the complete opposite of his enemies.
and not sneaking around
He's vanished away to Hong Kong...probably? Nobody knows where he is.
You're right, of course. But I mean he's shown himself. He wants to blow the whistle, and everything he's doing is consistent with that. He's doing everything as much on the up-and-up as possible without putting himself directly into the hands of the criminals he's exposing.
Is he? For no particular reason, I would be more confident that Sowden is, but I'm not 100% certain about Assange.