The Washington Post

Ecuador's highest court upheld early Thursday a criminal libel verdict favoring President Rafael Correa, sentencing three newspaper executives and a columnist to three years in prison each and ordering them to pay a total of $42 million in damages.

The defendants, joined by international press freedom and human rights groups, had called the case a cynical attempt by Correa to bankrupt the country's leading opposition newspaper, El Universo, and part of a concerted campaign to stifle free speech and silence critics.