The World Press Freedom Index for 2014 from Reporters Without Borders (RWB), put the US in 46th place out of 180 countries, a 13-place drop from last year. Some in the press are afraid to talk about this curtailment of Freedom of the Press, because they might be next, and some approve of it because they have allegiance to the current administration.
Press freedom in the United States has suffered “one of the most significant declines” in the last year after sacrificing information to national security, with the NSA surveillance scandal topping the list of wrongdoing.
That’s according to The World Press Freedom Index for 2014 from Reporters Without Borders (RWB), which put the US in 46th place out of 180 countries, a 13-place drop from last year.
This time American misdemeanors were in the report’s chapter on “Information sacrificed to national security and surveillance,” which says: “Countries that pride themselves on being democracies and respecting the rule of law” too often sacrifice the freedom of speech to “an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national security needs.”
“Investigative journalism often suffers as a result” of a “disturbing retreat from democratic practices,” the RWB report said.
World’s best countries for press freedom*
1. Finland 2. Netherlands 3. Norway 4. Luxembourg 5. Andorra 6. Liechtenstein 7. Denmark 8. Iceland 9. New Zealand 10. Sweden
World’s worst countries for press freedom*170. Cuba 171. Lao People’s Democratic Republic 172. Sudan 173. Islamic republic of Iran 174. Vietnam 175. China 176. Somalia 177. Syrian Arab Republic 178. Turkmenistan 179. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 180. Eritrea
*Source: Reporters Without Borders, The World Press Freedom Index for 2014.
The RWB recalled all recent major assaults on the freedom of press in the US, be it the conviction of US Army whistleblower Bradley (Chelsea) Manning or the manhunt for former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, whose revelations about pervasive worldwide surveillance conducted by the US intelligence’s made WikiLeaks publications of Manning’s files pale by comparison.
Another notorious attack on journalism mentioned by the RWB was the seizure of “thousands and thousands” of Associated Press phone calls by the US Justice Department, which was searching for a leak in the CIA.
Read the rest of the article here: http://rt.com/news/world-press-freedom-index-662/
[…] article AUN-TV published about how the USA is only the 46th most free press in the world here http://aun-tv.com/us-plunges-in-world-press-freedom-index-after-nsa-leaks-attacks-on-whistleblowers/ . In fact the USA dropped 13 places in just the last year. How the TWA800 and Flight370 […]