[IP] US now ranks 53rd in World Press Freedom Index
Begin forwarded message:
From: Kurt Albershardt <kurt@xxxxxx>
Date: October 30, 2006 12:50:23 PM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, Scott Dorsey <kludge@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: US now ranks 53rd in World Press Freedom Index
US drops 9 places, partly due to suspicion of journalists who
question "war on terrorism."
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
The news media advocacy organization *Reporters Without Borders*
released their fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index <http://
www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19381> this week, and it shows
that the United States has dropped 9 places since last year, and is
now ranked 53rd, alongside Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. The authors
of the report say that the steady erosion of press freedom in
countries like the US, France and Japan (two other countries that
slipped significantly on the index) is "very alarming."
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 recognize 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 *Washington Post* reported Tuesday that the organization bases
the index on responses to 50 questions about press freedom <http://
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/23/
AR2006102301148.html> asked of journalists, free press organizations,
researchers, human rights activists and others. *Jurist* reports that
the organization received responses from 168 countries <http://
jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/10/us-slips-in-world-press-
freedom-index.php>, and "compiled based on "the degree of freedom
journalists and news organizations enjoy in each country, and the
efforts made by the state to respect and ensure respect for this
freedom."
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