US now ranks 53rd in World Press Freedom Index

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kurt Albershardt <[email protected]>
Date: October 30, 2006 12:50:23 PM EST
To: [email protected], Scott Dorsey <[email protected]>
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."