U.S. Ranks Dismally in Press Freedom As Obama Wages “War on Whistleblowers Who Leak Info”
Mac Slavo
April 21st, 2016
SHTFplan.com
America’s proud moniker of ‘Leader of the Free World’ is slipping fast into the recesses of increasingly authoritarian and secretive government.
The World Press Freedom Index, issued by the Watchdog group Reporters Without Borders, ranked the United States at a dismal No. 41 out of 180 countries – putting it just barely in the top quarter of nations, which itself was actually an ‘improvement’ over the past year.
That is a far cry from the perceptions that most Americans have cherished, and politicians have so frequently touted in televised speeches.
The U.S. has lost a lot of ground in such rankings over the course of the past several years of repression in the post-9/11 world and in particular with the clamp down and persecution of whistleblowers, and the journalists who enable them.
According to NPR:
The U.S. is ranked 41 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, which measures the “level of freedom of information in 180 countries.”
Citing the U.S. government’s “war on whistleblowers who leak information about its surveillance activities, spying and foreign operations, especially those linked to counter-terrorism,” and the country’s lack of a “shield law” that would allow journalists to protect confidential sources, the report takes a decidedly negative view of U.S. press freedom.
[…] as NPR’s Sam Sanders has reported:
“[Obama’s] Justice Department has cracked down on reporters in an effort to prevent leaks; it also set a new record for withholding access to government files under the Freedom of Information Act (despite calling for a “new era of openness” on his first day in office);
The Rest…HERE
