US Plummets In Press Freedom Rankings

[NorthCarolina]

The United States plunged 14 places in the annual Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday. The group said it was "one of the most significant declines" in press freedom it had tracked during 2013.

The US in now ranked 46th on the RWB list, in between Romania and Haiti. It was ranked 32nd in the 2013 index. (Finland tops the entire list.)

The press freedom group was blunt in its explanation. It cited increased efforts to track down whistleblowers and the sources of leaks, mentioning Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden in particular. It also condemned the Justice Department's surveillance of reporters, and the continued leak battle facing New York Times journalist James Risen.

.......

The US was 20th on the list just a few years ago. It fell 27 places in the 2012 index thanks to the harassment and arrest of journalists covering Occupy Wall Street, before climbing 15 places in 2013.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/us-press-freedom-index-2014_n_4773101.html

Anyone really surprised?

[woo me with science]

1. Important, important post.

Thank you. K&R

And it is about to get much, much worse. The administration signalled yesterday that they will not defend net neutrality.

Is the FCC Chairman getting ready to take a case-by-case approach to net neutrality?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4484820

With this next massive betrayal, we lose control of the internet...and the corporations gain the means to control our access to information and freedom of association. Look at the wasteland of cable TV. This is NOT just about costs. This is about control of information and communication. The free and open internet was perhaps our last hope for organizing and educating to take back our country from corporate fascism.

This corporate administration, like the administration before them, have systematically been removing every single avenue the people have left to fight back against the corporate looting of our lives and our futures. They are dismantling our right to privacy, our free press, our right to assemble and protest, our national sovereignty in trade and regulatory policy, our protections for journalists and whistleblowers... And now they will allow corporate control of the internet.

[Enthusiast]

8. +1 a whole bunch.

Another betrayal. Imagine that.

[jsr]

9. Meanwhile,

[bemildred]

2. KnR, Read it and weep for what we once had here. nt

[summerschild]

3. K & R

[Luminous Animal]

4. And folks wonder why Greenwald is reticent to return to the U.S.

[corkhead]

5. my only surprise is that it is actually being reported in the US

[Enthusiast]

7. Hell, that shouldn't have a sarcasm thingie.

[Enthusiast]

6. This is no surprise at all.

Even right here, on DU there is an effort to manipulate the thinking and force Democrats to adopt and accept right wing policies. It's wall to wall propaganda everywhere you look.

[woo me with science]

10. +1000000

[LittleBlue]

11. Not even remotely surprised

My only surprise is that Obama goes after journalists and their sources worse than Bush ever did.