Diversity, Development, and Sustainability in the Andes

Quito, Ecuador

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

In the News...

Recently, Ecuador has been in the news for a highly controversial situation - whether to grant political asylum to Julian Assange, the creator of Wikileaks. There is a good article on the story here.

While Assange is a highly controversial figure himself, the granting of asylum, if it happens, will be about more than simply freedom of expression and transparency. As a matter of fact, the track record in Ecuador of freedom of press is rather bad, with reporters who speak out against the government being subject to harassment, attacks or being essentially made unemployable because of government interventions (note: to be fair, attacks are generally carried out by citizens who are passionately supportive of the government, not the organization itself. or, perhaps better put, there is little evidence to indicate that the government itself carries out attacks). For more on press freedom issues in Ecuador, check out CPJ's website.

Whatever the reason that Ecuador has gotten itself involved in the Assange case, it is sure to be interesting to see how it plays out.

No comments:

Post a Comment