Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has released its annual ranking of countries where the press can do its work without threats or intimidation. The United States has tumbled to the 53rd position — a spot it shares with Croatia, Tonga, and Botswana.
The United States (53rd) has fallen nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002. 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." The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism.
Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his video archives. Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who works for the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantanamo, and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held by US authorities in Iraq since April this year.
The rankings aren't just influenced by overzealous governments, as Denmark's dramatic fall from a shared first place shows:
Denmark (19th) dropped from joint first place because of serious threats [by Muslims] against the authors of the Mohammed cartoons published there in autumn 2005. For the first time in recent years in a country that is very observant of civil liberties, journalists had to have police protection due to threats against them because of their work.
Northern Europe has the world's freest press, says RWB,
...with no recorded censorship, threats, intimidation or physical reprisals in Finland, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands.
I can't believe any statistic that says England is more free than us. Bull. Shit.
Posted by: Matt | Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 11:48 AM