Free Speech in Ecuador has Limits

The World

Two weeks ago, Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa granted asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has taken refuge in the country’s embassy in London, kicking off a diplomatic standoff that could go on for a long time.

Ecuador may have gone out on a limb to save the poster boy for freedom of the press.

But inside Ecuador, it’s a different scene.

A 2011 report from the Committee to Protect Journalists says President Correa’s ‘press freedom record is among the very worst in the Americas.’

And Thursday, asylum was granted by the US for an Ecuadorean journalist, Emilio Palacio.

Last year in Ecuador, Palacio was fined millions of dollars and sentenced to jail for an opinion piece he wrote about President Correa.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Sandra Grossman, who is Palacio’s US-based attorney in Miami.

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