Raids on newsrooms, journalists arrested, politicians demanding greater regulation of the press. No it’s not Britain, but rather the latest revelations surrounding the Ecuadorian government’s crackdown on the country’s media. Now President Rafael Correa has hit back, telling the Guardian that he is no worse than Lord Justice Leveson:

“We won’t tolerate abuses and crimes made every day in the name of freedom of speech. That is freedom of extortion and blackmail. Do we have an unwritten law that we can’t sue a journalist? Since when? So nobody should sue Murdoch and his partners in crime in Britain? The Ecuadorean and Latin American press is not like the European press, which has some professional ethics. They are used to being above the law, to blackmail, to extort. I am sorry about good people on an international level who defend this kind of press. The newspapers have power.”

Would-be press regulators should be careful what they wish for…