Media Watch

U.S. drops 20 places in Press Freedom rankings

 U.S. ranks 44th out of 167 nations in "Press Freedom"

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- "North Korea once again ranks last in the fourth annual World Press Freedom Index, and the United States drops more than 20 places on this 167-country list... But a growing number of African and Latin American countries have earned very respectable rankings: Benin 25, Namibia 25, El Salvador 28, Cape Verde 29, Mauritius 34, Mali 37, Costa Rica 41 (They were all ahead of The United States in 44th place)...

"Leading the Index once again are northern European countries Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands, where robust press freedom is alive and well. The top 10 are all European. The highest-ranking countries in other continents are New Zealand (12), Trinidad and Tobago (12), Benin (25) and South Korea (34)...

"Countries that have recently won or regained their independence value press freedom very highly, thereby disproving the fallacy advocated by many authoritarian leaders that democracy takes decades to establish itself. Nine states that have only existed, or regained their independence, within the past 15 years, are found among the top 60 countries in the Index: Slovenia (9), Estonia (11), Latvia (16), Lithuania (21), Namibia (25), Bosnia-Herzegovina (33), Macedonia (43)..."

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P.S. A few comments seemed obvious to the G.A.O. reports of the White House "paying" for news coverage of various administration agendas. For you doubters see this report  and these;