Rafael Correa (Getty)

Julian Assange’s decision to seek refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy is not as strange as it seems. In May, Mr Assange interviewed Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, for Russia Today, a Kremlin-backed television channel. Both men laughed and smiled as they shared their anti-US views — in his six years as president, Mr Correa has booted out a US ambassador and a US army base — and also their partial ideas about media freedom. Mr Assange once wanted to censor his own biography. Mr Correa has developed a government media empire, while clamping down on critical independents. Read more