U.S. Plunges in Global Press Freedom Rankings As Obama Wages "War on Whistleblowers"

[kpete]

The U.N. General Assembly recently adopted its first resolution on the safety of journalists. Reporters Without Borders is calling on the United Nations to monitor how member states meet their obligations to protect reporters.


A new survey of press freedom around the world that finds the United States has plunged 13 spots, now ranking just 46th among 180 countries. The annual survey by Reporters Without Borders also says Syria is the most dangerous country for journalists, showing a correlation between conflict zones and a low level of press freedom. Other countries that fell lower than in the previous year’s survey, include the civil-war-torn Central African Republic, down 43 spots to 109, and Guatemala, where four journalists were killed last year alone. This comes as the United Nations General Assembly recently adopted its first resolution on the safety of journalists. The group has now called on the United Nations to monitor how member states meet their obligations to protect reporters. We are joined by Delphine Halgand of Reporters Without Borders.
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/12/us_plunges_in_global_press_freedom

[840high]

1. kick

[woo me with science]

2. Important, important post.

Thank you. K&R

And it is about to get even 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 begin corporate control of the internet.

[WillyT]

3. HUGE K & R !!! - More Here:

Of the United States and Britain, Reporters Without Borders writes:

US journalists were stunned by the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press phone records without warning in order to identify the source of a CIA leak. It served as a reminder of the urgent need for a “shield law” to protect the confidentiality of journalists’ sources at the federal level. The revival of the legislative process is little consolation for James Risen of The New York Times, who is subject to a court order to testify against a former CIA employee accused of leaking classified information. And less still for Barrett Brown, a young freelance journalist facing 105 years in prison in connection with the posting of information that hackers obtained from Statfor, a private intelligence company with close ties to the federal government.

The United Kingdom (33rd, -3) distinguished itself in the war on terror by the disgraceful pressure it put on The Guardian newspaper and by its detention of David Miranda, journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner and assistant, for nine hours. Both the US and UK authorities seem obsessed with hunting down whistleblowers instead of adopting legislation to rein in abusive surveillance practices that negate privacy, a democratic value cherished in both countries.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/12/us-press-freedom-plunges-to-46th-placing-it-behind-former-soviet-states/

[bobthedrummer]

4. K&R, investigative journalists are particularly targeted at every level, local, state, federal n/t

[Blue_Tires]

5. already being discussed here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4488117

The "war on whistleblowers" still is a secondary issue to deregulation and concentrated ownership monopolies, but that is a discussion for another thread...

[xiamiam]

6. k and r..pitiful and disgusting..nt

[woo me with science]

7. kick