Hey, we’re No. 48!
Worse than Tonga and Romania, it’s true. But better than No. 49, Senegal!
And sad to say the United States of America did slip from last year’s No. 45 on Reporters Without Borders’ 2019 World Press Freedom Index.
I scrolled way up to the single digits from our neighborhood of semi-tyrannical nations and, damn. It’s enough to turn a person into a conspiracy theorist. Here’s your top five countries in terms of being able to exercise the freedom to report the news and the commentary without government intervention or intimidation: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark.
Those nutty Nordics, plus the Dutch. They’re always winning the world happiness contest. And now they have to rub our noses in it, that our country is increasingly unfree in attitudes toward independent voices?
The next five in the Top 10 get more normal, and diverse — Switzerland, New Zealand, Belgium, Jamaica, Costa Rica. It’s just that who’d a-thunk that the world’s greatest republic, with freedom of the press famously written right into the First Amendment to our Constitution, would one day cede 38 slots to, well, Costa Rica? I went surfing there in December and it’s a swell little place with bright, interesting, well-educated citizens, dynamite craft beer, the only real democracy in Central America and an unreal beach break at Nosara. But now they have far more press freedom, too?
The thing is, the international reporters who make up the index have had it out for our government’s restrictions on the press for years, so it’s not that we were ever No. 1. Compared to other nations, “Whistleblowers face prosecution under the Espionage Act if they leak information of public interest to the press, while there is still no federal ‘shield law’ guaranteeing reporters’ right to protect their sources,” Reports Without Borders says. “Journalists and their devices continue to be searched at the U.S. border, while some foreign journalists are still denied entry into the U.S. after covering sensitive topics like Colombia’s FARC or Kurdistan.”
But the kick in the head is, of course, the current president. After 243 years of mostly wary comity between journalists only doing their jobs and chief executives only doing theirs, this is what it has come to: “President Donald J. Trump’s presidency has fostered further decline in journalists’ right to report. He has declared the press an ‘enemy of the American people’ in a series of verbal attacks toward journalists, attempted to block White House access to multiple media outlets, and routinely uses the term ‘fake news’ in retaliation for critical reporting. He has even called for revoking certain media outlets’ broadcasting licenses.”
Indeed he has. But he sure digs that National Enquirer.
The more serious issue than the president’s buffoonery is the fact that his press secretary just went a record 43 days without holding a press briefing, those question-and-answer sessions that used to be daily. So last week Sarah Huckabee Sanders broke down and did have a press conference — with children of White House staffers on Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. No journalists allowed. And here’s the thing: It was off the record. None of the little tykes has spilled so far.
She has gone over a month without doing what she’s paid to do. But the reason she doesn’t want to face reporters this time is probably personal. The Mueller report shows that she’s a liar. Sanders told reporters in May 2017 that after her boss fired FBI Director James Comey, “I’ve heard from countless members of the FBI that are grateful and thankful for the president’s decision.” Under oath, she admitted she had heard from zero members. What a time to be alive.
Larry Wilson is on the Southern California News Group editorial board. lwilson@scng.com
from Daily News http://bit.ly/2V4d4Fj
via
Post a Comment