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US Slips Again In Freedom of the Press Ranking
npwa writes to tell us Reporters Without Borders has released their annual worldwide press freedom index. While developing nations like Haiti and Mauritania continue to gain ground developed nations like France, Japan, and the US continue their downward spiral. From the article: "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 recognise the media's right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism."
"So if some islamist group threatens, say, danish journalists/cartoonists, the ranking of Danemark [sic] will go down."
That's a good point, but if that group's power or ability to levy punishment is significant, I think it makes sense to include. The reason censorship is wrong is that it's a violence-based denial of free speech. Whether it's a government, para-government, mafia, or militant group is largely irrelevant to the overall problem: lack of freedom. Presumably, the ranking takes into account the severity of the threat involved.
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
Well, I'm European and I spent some time working in a project in the US. I watched Fox News every evening because it made me laugh a lot. It's completely ridiculous.
We have some pretty bad journalists, and our media are very biased, you can tell right away most things are manipulated. But we couldn't get to the level of Fox News, it's too brazen, people just wouldn't take it seriously.
Of course, if some Americans take the Fox crap seriously, it ceases to be funny, it becomes very, very dangerous.