October 27, 2006

WHEW, WE WERE AFRAID IT MIGHT BE A SUBJECTIVE CRITERIA:

US now ranks 53rd in World Press Freedom Index,/a>: US drops 9 places, partly due to suspicion of journalists who question "war on terrorism." (Tom Regan, 10/27/06, csmonitor.com)

The news media advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders released their fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index 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."


Comedy probably isn't the effect they were going for.

 Posted by Orrin Judd at October 27, 2006 12:09 PM
Comments

It wasn't that long ago that the CSM was a reputable publication.

Posted by: erp at October 27, 2006 12:51 PM

No rating for the efficiency and thourougness of the police state? Probably because the US would come in dead last.

What's funny are the number of people who actually believe this sort of High School popularity contest matters or contains useful information. Usually it's the kind of person who likes having their little prejudices confirmed by authority figures.

(Saw this over at Slashdot a few days ago, and the comments were hilarious in their pretentious pomposity. )

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at October 27, 2006 1:19 PM

Interesting, too, that the Left, which is so concerned about press freedom under the BusHitler-Haliburton junta, would shut down Fox News and this blog the minute it got the power to do so.

Posted by: Mike Morley at October 28, 2006 7:11 AM
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