US falls to 47th in press freedom rankings after Occupy crackdown
U.S: Sweeping protests around the world made it an extremely
difficult year for the media, and tested journalists as never before,
the annual report into press freedom reveals.
The annual report by Reporters Without Borders has been released,
showing the United States fell 27 points on the list due to the many
arrests of journalists covering Occupy Wall Street protests.
The slide in the United States places it just behind Comoros and
Taiwan in a group with Argentina and Romania.
Reporters Without Borders said the heightened unrest around the world
resulted in a significant shake-up of the group’s annual Press Freedom
Index, which assesses governments’ commitment to protecting media
freedoms.
The Paris-based non-governmental Reporters Without Borders has named
“crackdown” the word of 2011 in an assessment of global media freedom
during a year in which journalists covering sweeping protests were
tested as never before.
The non-governmental organisation seeks to defend journalists’
freedom to work and combat censorship internationally.
Despite the big changes, some constants remained. The country with
the freest media in the world was Finland, followed by Norway, Estonia,
the Netherlands and Austria. Eritrea was last, with North Korea just
above.
The United States was not alone in the falling grades: Bahrain fell
29 points because of the crackdown in that country.
Egypt and Syria also fell a few points to languish near the bottom of
the pack (166) and (176) respectively.
The group judged that Syria, along with Iran and China, ‘seem to have
lost contact with reality as they have been sucked into an insane spiral
of terror.’
Pakistan was the world’s deadliest country for journalists, and
Eritrea came in last in the list of overall press freedom.Syria, where
an uprising against the government has been met with a brutal crackdown
that has left more than 5,000 people dead, received its worst rating
ever at 176.
In Afghanistan (150th) and Pakistan (151st), reporters remained under
constant threat from the Taliban, religious extremists, separatist
movements and political groups. With 10 deaths last year, Pakistan was
the world’s most dangerous country for journalists for the second year
in a row.
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