Plan B Forum

“This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world,” Reporters Without Borders said today as it released its 10th annual press freedom index.

“Many media paid dearly for their coverage of democratic aspirations or opposition movements. Control of news and information continued to tempt governments and to be a question of survival for totalitarian and repressive regimes. The past year also highlighted the leading role played by netizens in producing and disseminating news.

“Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them.

“It is no surprise that the same trio of countries, Eritrea, Turkmenistan and North Korea, absolute dictatorships that permit no civil liberties, again occupy the last three places in the index. This year, they are immediately preceded at the bottom by Syria, Iran and China, three countries that seem to have lost contact with reality as they have been sucked into an insane spiral of terror, and by Bahrain and Vietnam, quintessential oppressive regimes. Other countries such as Uganda and Belarus have also become much more repressive.

“This year’s index finds the same group of countries at its head, countries such as Finland, Norway and Netherlands that respect basic freedoms. This serves as a reminder that media independence can only be maintained in strong democracies and that democracy needs media freedom. It is worth noting the entry of Cape Verde and Namibia into the top twenty, two African countries where no attempts to obstruct the media were reported in 2011.”

http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2 ... ,1043.html

Lord Jim wrote:in the US we don't toss people in the clink for expressing disgusting and idiotic points of view....

The worldwide wave of protests in 2011 also swept through the New World. It dragged the United States (47th) and Chile (80th) down the index, costing them 27 and 47 places respectively. The crackdown on protest movements and the accompanying excesses took their toll on journalists. In the space of two months in the United States, more than 25 were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation

Lord Jim wrote:Well, 47th actually, but the rankings are still pure bollocks..

more than 25 were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation

If a worldwide organization of reporters is not objective, then who could possibly qualify?

Sounds like a word you would've learned from the British or Aussie press Jim...

Lord Jim wrote:[I don't doubt that some reporters (and now a days, just about anybody with a blog can call themselves a "reporter") were arrested, or shoved around

Among those arrested were journalists representing the Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, Daily News, DNAInfo, NPR, Television New Zealand, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair

If you know of instances where reporters are facing criminal prosecution for something related to the fleabagger protests, I'll be happy to at the report.

Of the top of my head, reports from passersby who were there at the time of the alleged incidents, would certainly be better.

the protests were newsworthy events, and the press had a right to be there,

People who are arrested face criminal prosecution, it's not exactly rocket science.

Lord Jim wrote: subjectively loaded and hyperbolic, (based on everything I've seen reported,)

you view the U.S. as some utopia of press freedom where it is absolutely impossble for it ever to be infringed,

I don't doubt that some reporters (and now a days, just about anybody with a blog can call themselves a "reporter") were arrested, or shoved around

more than 25 were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation

there's so much missing there, and what is there sounds so subjectively loaded and hyperbolic, (based on everything I've seen reported,) that I'd want to have a lot more details from independent objective sources before I'd give it much significance.