Freedom Of Press Dropping In The U.S.

The United States has always prided itself on having a free press. In fact, I'd wager that most Americans think the American press is the freest in the world. I wish that was true, because one of the greatest protectors of a democracy is a free press. Unfortunately, while the press in this country is freer than that of many countries, there are also many countries that top the U.S. in this area.

One of the things that worries me is the rapid consolidation of the media outlets in this country. Too many media outlets are now owned by only a few large corporations, and those corporations are exerting more influence on what is and should be covered by the press. The only thing that somewhat mitigates this growing corporate ownership and influence over the media is the internet -- and those same corporations are now trying to get government to let them also control the internet.

But it was another growing problem that bothers the organization called Reporters Without Borders. Each year this organization ranks the countries in the world by how much press freedom they have. In this year's Press Freedom Index, they have rated the United States as having only the 47th freest press in the world (out of 179 countries). That's 27 places below the rating the United States got last year, when it was ranked as number 20.

The reason for this rather large drop is because of how authorities have treated the press as they tried to cover the Occupy Wall Street protests. Journalists have been beaten and/or arrested as they tried to cover the attempt by authorities to deny the protesters their constitutional rights. This is a shocking act by governmental authorities, but not a new one. Authorities throughout history (and around the world) have thought that threatening, beating, or jailing journalists would prevent them from covering stories the government doesn't want covered.

This usually doesn't work, especially in a democracy, but ignorant authorities keep trying it. And journalists keep on having to put up with it to get and report the news. Fortunately for us, there have always been at least a few journalists willing to put their freedom, and sometimes even their lives on the line to properly do their job. These people are heros, even in a supposedly civilized and democratic country.

I am listing below the top 51 countries with the freest press. I think you'll be surprised at some of the countries that rank better than the United States.

1. Finland
1. Norway
3. Estonia
3. Netherlands
5. Austria
6. Iceland
6. Luxembourg
8. Switzerland
9. Cape Verde
10. Canada
10. Denmark
12. Sweden
13. New Zealand
14. Czech Republic
15. Ireland
16. Cyprus
16. Jamaica
16. Germany
19. Costa Rica
20. Belgium
20. Namibia
22. Japan
22. Surinam
24. Poland
25. Mali
25. OECS
25. Slovakia
28. United Kingdom
29. Niger
30. Australia
30. Lithuania
32. Uruguay
33. Portugal
34. Tanzania
35. Papua New Guinea
36. Slovenia
37. El Salvador
38. France
39. Spain
40. Hungary
41 Ghana
42. South Africa
42. Botswana
44. South Korea
45. Comoros
45. Taiwan
47. United States
47. Argentina
47. Romania
50. Latvia
50. trinidad and Tobago