{"id":267,"date":"2006-10-26T02:31:02","date_gmt":"2006-10-26T09:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=267"},"modified":"2006-10-26T14:14:15","modified_gmt":"2006-10-26T21:14:15","slug":"press-freedom-declines-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=267","title":{"rendered":"Press Freedom Declines In U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fifth Annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index<\/a> is out and it doesn’t look good for the United States. In a field of 168 countries, the U.S. finishes 53rd, sandwiched between the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. The embarrassment of such a poor ranking is exacerbated by the fact that we dropped nine points since last year to reach this nadir. The reasons for this slippage are summarized in the report:<\/p>\n

“Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of ‘national security’ to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his ‘war on terrorism.'”<\/span><\/p>\n

The report also cites the cases of journalists being held without trial in both Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The report does not cite the continued use of propaganda in the form of video news releases, or merger of the White House press office with Fox News via the hiring of Tony Snow, or the Attorney General’s overt threat<\/a> to incarcerate recalcitrant reporters when he told Congress that…<\/p>\n

“There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that [prosecution] is a possibility.”<\/span><\/p>\n

I did some additional numbers crunching to focus the list on the nations with the strongest economies as measured by Gross Domestic Product. In that ranking the U.S. finished in the bottom third at #14 of 20. I then produced a listing of 20 countries that ranked the highest in both population and GDP. Still the U.S. couldn’t manage to do better than tenth place. [Click on more<\/em> below to view these charts]<\/p>\n

The fact that this country, whose Constitution explicitly honors a free press, fares so poorly in this report is shameful. But what makes it worse is that, while the press in other nations is often suppressed by threats of violence, the main reason our media suffers is due to its own cowardice and ineptitude. This report is an exclamation mark for media reform and the movement to break up the Big Media conglomerates.<\/p>\n

This sorry appraisal for the United States reflects squarely on the Bush administration and its open antagonism for the press. In its alleged quest to protect America from enemies whom we are told hate us for our freedoms, Bush has alighted on a unique defense:<\/p>\n

If he takes away our freedom, they won’t hate us anymore.<\/b><\/p>\n


\n20 Countries Ranking Highest In GDP – Ordered By Freedom Index Score<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Rank<\/b><\/td>\nCountry<\/b><\/td>\nScore<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nNetherlands<\/td>\n0.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nSwitzerland<\/td>\n2.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nBelgium<\/td>\n4.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nSweden<\/td>\n4.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nCanada<\/td>\n4.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nGermany<\/td>\n5.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nUnited Kingdom<\/td>\n6.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nSouth Korea<\/td>\n7.75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nAustralia<\/td>\n9.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\n9.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\nItaly<\/td>\n9.90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\nSpain<\/td>\n10.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\nJapan<\/td>\n12.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/b><\/td>\nUnited States<\/b><\/td>\n13.00<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/td>\nBrazil<\/td>\n17.17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16<\/td>\nTurkey<\/td>\n25.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17<\/td>\nIndia<\/td>\n26.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
18<\/td>\nMexico<\/td>\n48.53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
19<\/td>\nRussia<\/td>\n52.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20<\/td>\nChina<\/td>\n94.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

20 Countries Ranking Highest In Both Population And GDP – Ordered By Freedom Index Score<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Rank<\/b><\/td>\nCountry<\/b><\/td>\nScore<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nCanada<\/td>\n4.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nGermany<\/td>\n5.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nUnited Kingdom<\/td>\n6.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nSouth Korea<\/td>\n7.75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\n9.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nItaly<\/td>\n9.90<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nSpain<\/td>\n10.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nSouth Africa<\/td>\n11.25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nJapan<\/td>\n12.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/b><\/td>\nUnited States<\/b><\/td>\n13.00<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\nPoland<\/td>\n14.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\nBrazil<\/td>\n17.17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\nTurkey<\/td>\n25.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\nIndonesia<\/td>\n26.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/td>\nIndia<\/td>\n26.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16<\/td>\nThailand<\/td>\n33.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17<\/td>\nMexico<\/td>\n45.83<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
18<\/td>\nRussia<\/td>\n52.50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
19<\/td>\nIran<\/td>\n90.88<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
20<\/td>\nChina<\/td>\n94.00<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fifth Annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index is out and it doesn’t look good for the United States. In a field of 168 countries, the U.S. finishes 53rd, sandwiched between the Dominican Republic and Uruguay. The embarrassment of such a poor ranking is exacerbated by the fact that we dropped nine points […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-4j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6278,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6278","url_meta":{"origin":267,"position":0},"title":"U.S. Falls to 47th Place On Press Freedom Index","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/25\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Reporters Without Borders released their annual Press Freedom Index today that ranks 179 countries for their treatment of journalists and respect for a free and independent press. 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