Mr. Snowden, the former Booz Allen employee and NSA contractor who has released details about a classified data management program has left Hong Kong for Moscow with help from Wikileaks, aiming to take refuge in Ecuador, under the wing of the leftist president Rafael Correa. Correa has also provided political asylum to Julian Assange, the Wikileaks leader, who is currently hiding from prosecution for sexual assault in the Ecuadorean embassy in London. The irony is that while Snowden proclaims that his act of leaking classified information about NSA court approved operations was inspired by his high standards of moral rectitude that demand absolute transparency when it comes to governmental control of information, Ecuador, his future place of refuge, just passed a law that severely curtails a basic human right, that of free expression.
The Ecuadorean legislature earlier this month passed a restrictive media law, establishing government-run media overseers and imposing sanctions on citizens who tarnish “people’s good name,” the Associated Press reported. The measure created several government commissions authorized to level civil and criminal penalties against journalists.
