In the view of Reporters Without Borders (RWB), which recently released its 2011-12 Press Freedom Index, “Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom.”
That's a big reason why last year, according to RWB, 66 journalists were killed worldwide, 1,044 were arrested, 1,959 were physically attacked or threatened, 499 were censored, 71 were kidnapped, and 73 had to flee their country.
For new-media workers, RWB tallied 199 bloggers and netizens worldwide who were arrested, 62 who were physically attacked, and 68 countries that censor the Internet.
To no one's surprise, countries with dictatorships such as Syria, Iran, and China are at the bottom of the RWB list for 2011. By contrast, Finland and Norway were tied for first, and Estonia and the Netherlands tied for third.
The biggest surprise, however, was how far the United States fell on the 2011-12 index.
Our nation fell 27 places, down to 47th, and tied with Argentina and Romania, due to the many arrests of journalists covering Occupy Wall Street protests around the country.
Since last September, 44 journalists in 11 U.S. cities have been arrested. Another 13 “citizen journalists” affiliated with Occupy media teams have also been arrested.
Here are some of the the countries that finished ahead of the United States: Cyprus, Cape Verde, Namibia, Surinam, Mali, Poland, Niger, El Salvador, Slovakia, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, and Botswana. Among European countries, the United States beat out only Italy and Greece.
* * *
It's not as hazardous to be a journalist in the United States as is to be one in Yemen, Somalia, Mexico, Ivory Coast, Pakistan, or Bahrain, to name a few of the countries that RWB calls the deadliest for reporters and photographers.
However, the treatment of reporters in this country is worsening, and it is simply unacceptable.
The late British publisher Lord Northcliffe once said that “news is something someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising.”
That's why journalists around the world are targeted for abuse, arrest, and occasionally death.
Too many Americans take the First Amendment for granted. We don't.
Given that we are an independent community newspaper that serves as both a representative of the public, as well as a conduit for public information and opinion, we take our rights and responsibilities seriously.
At the same time, we don't claim a monopoly on the First Amendment. It belongs to everyone. You don't need a credential, academic degree, official license to work as a journalist in America, and citizen journalism has been critical to the reporting of stories big and small.
Fair and factual reporting depends upon the courage of the men and women who are willing to risk their lives to uphold a simple, yet profound, idea - that democracy depends upon freedom of information and that the people have the right to know what is being done in their names.
Journalism is not a crime, and targeting those who engage in it for arrest is violates every democratic principle our nation was founded upon.
If we are to remain a free society, we need a free press.