Freedom of the Press

Pat Blandford contributed the following news story, from the Reporters sans Frontieres (Reporters without Borders)- Reporters Without Borders is publishing the first worldwide press freedom index:

The first worldwide index of press freedom has some surprises for Western democracies. The United States ranks below Costa Rica and Italy scores lower than Benin. The five countries with least press freedom are North Korea, China, Burma, Turkmenistan and Bhutan.

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The poor ranking of the United States (17th) is mainly because of the number of journalists arrested or imprisoned there. Arrests are often because they refuse to reveal their sources in court. Also, since the 11 September attacks, several journalists have been arrested for crossing security lines at some official buildings.

I'm sure that the RSF didn't factor in that the United States comprises a large portion of the Internet population, which is the ultimate form of free media.

Note that the RSF has a website with a .fr (France) domain.