Say It Ain't So Already

The United States Drops 27 Points in Freedom of the Press Index

January 26, 2012 at 10:57 AM 2 comments

Botswana, Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Niger are among the countries that rank higher in press freedoms than the United States in a new index released by Reporters Without Borders:

“Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them.

[...]

“This year’s index finds the same group of countries at its head, countries such as Finland, Norway and Netherlands that respect basic freedoms. This serves as a reminder that media independence can only be maintained in strong democracies and that democracy needs media freedom.

[...]

Led by President Yoweri Museveni, Uganda (139th) launched an unprecedented crackdown on opposition movements and independent media after the elections in February. Similarly, Chile (80th) fell 47 places because of its many freedom of information violations, committed very often by the security forces during student protests. The United States (47th) also owed its fall of 27 places to the many arrests of journalist covering Occupy Wall Street protests.

Read more and see how other countries rank, here.

Time to hit the refresh button on what “they” tell us, that the United States is the worldwide beacon for freedom of the press.

Entry filed under: Dumbed Down, Fear, Laws / Judiciary, Media - General, Print Media, Repression, Terror, The "Liberal Media", We the People. Tags: media freedom.