Freedom of the press in Ecuador: A chill descends | The Economist

FOR a man who calls his country’s legal system dysfunctional and corrupt, Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president, has fared remarkably well before the courts. In 2008 he won a $600,000 suit against Banco Pichincha, the country’s biggest bank, because it had erroneously included him on a list of delinquent credit-card holders. On July 20th he was granted a far larger $40m judgment in a libel case against a columnist for the El Universonewspaper and three of the company’s directors, in a ruling that free-speech advocates say will have a chilling effect on the press.