Reporters Without Borders is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to not only teach a global audience about press freedom in the world, but also to fight government censorship in all forms.
The newest annual report that ranks press freedom by country found that the United States fell from 32 to 46. Compared to other countries, the U.S. now is nestled between Romania and Haiti in terms of press freedom.
Ranked at number 1 as the most free nation for the press is Finland and last is Eritrea, a small country found on the Horn of Africa.
RWB offers a number of reasons as to why the United States is ranked so poorly in their findings. For example, they cite a post-9/11 consciousness, where journalists are “harassed and even imprisoned for refusing to reveal their sources or surrender their files to federal judicial officials.”
The report continues to argue that improvements have not been made under the Obama administration. In fact, “No fewer that eight individuals have been charged under the Espionage Act since Obama became president, compared with three during Bush’s two terms.”
In addition to chasing down journalists with sensitive information the U.S. government has had a string of whistleblowers that revealed controversial information about their actions
Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley) and Edward Snowden are some recent examples. Manning was recently sentenced to 35 years for leaking information about U.S. military actions to Wikileaks.
Snowden is still in Russia, unwilling to return to the States without assurance that he would not be immediately arrested for his leaks to The Guardian about NSA spying.
As much as Americans like to believe we have the greatest freedoms in the world, it’s hard to argue with hard evidence that shows the contrary. Perhaps this report will lead trends to greater freedoms for journalists in the country, doubtful as it seems.
If all else fails, maybe we can all move to Finland. I hear their Karelian pasties are the best in the world.
The Journalism Advisor 