press freedom - Haiti Observer Blog

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an advocacy group for media rights, has released its yearly World Press Freedom Index, which ranks countries on their treatment of press freedom. The report issues a warning there exists a "growing threat worldwide . . . (a) tendency to interpret national security needs in an overly broad and abusive manner."

The U.S. distinguished itself as having experienced "one of the most significant declines" in its attitude toward press freedom in 2013. It fell 13 places to rank #46 among 180 countries on the index, sandwiched between Romania and Haiti. The news event that most illustrated the U.S.'s hard-hearted stance on investigative reporting was its vilification of National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence leaker, Edward Snowden, as well as covert seizure of phone records stolen from the Associated Press.

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