Thursday, October 20, 2005
Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2005
Reporters sans Frontières (Reporters without Borders) today released its freedom of the press rankings for 2005. Of particular interest to many of us is that the United States has slipped by more than 20 places from last year to 44. The top eleven countries are all European, and 4 of those are post-communist countries: Slovakia at 8, Czech and Slovenia together at 9, and Estonia at 11.
NB: While RSF is a non-governmental organisation, their impartiality has been called into question because they get funding from the US and French governments.
For complete rankings and explanations:
http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=554
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5 comments:
Skeeter,
I think you've shown that this topic is boring.
Of course, the fact that a large number of those papers are owned by the same few companies dilutes your argument, Skeeter.
"Are you saying they are less free because they own more than one newspaper or tv network?"
I am saying that it takes more than just a little force out of your trotting out statistics such as that there are 1700 newspapers, if they're all owned by 5 individuals or corporations -- who all get kickbacks from the politicians whose campaigns they fund.
For non-editorial copy, the vast majority of newspapers simply regurgitate what comes off the AP wire anyway, further diluting the impact of any argument relying on the seemingly large "diversity" of news outlets.
Point being, your numbers fail to tell the story you claim for them.
Actually, I USED to get that a lot. As a kid, when I would get introduced to adults, they would almost always say, "Oh, like Audie Murphy?"
Now, when I meet people younger than me (43), most of them ask, "Is that short for something?" or "What kind of name is that?" So I tell them I was named after Audie Murphy, and they just go, "Who's that?"
So, nice score on the cultural literacy test there, S.
I think the most valuable press outlet we have right now is C-SPAN. Back when I lived in a house with a TV, I would sometimes watch events on C-SPAN, and then compare the different commercial outlets' coverage of said event. It was a little disturbing, and amusing. The event was almost always sensationalized, and was usually given a slant, as well. Even a comparison of headlines announcing the occurrence of the event could sometimes be radically different ("Bush admits mistakes were made!" and "Bush pledges $X billion in immediate hurricane relief!" could both be headlines covering the same brief press conference, for example, and each stresses a different aspect of the event). My conclusion is that each outlet was simply trying to sell something, and they had to decorate it as best they could for their particular audience, so the audience would keep coming back.
So, I just make sure I have lots of grains of salt with me now, any time I consume any mainstream American press, and I always have the question, "Hmmm, wonder what REALLY happened?" in the back of my mind when I read or hear a story, cuz it seems you only ever get a tiny piece of it.
With our government doing more and more to restrict the press's access (not allowing coverage of caskets returning home from the war -- obviously that dilutes the American public's awareness of the war's toll -- is just one example), I am not surprised that an international press organization is suggesting that the freedom of the press here is less than it was previously. Doesn't matter how many news outlets there are if they're barred from doing their jobs, or are constantly funneled into a spin room instead of being given access to the actual events.
One of the best examples of a "free" press outlet right now in the world is Al-Jazeera. Unless you've seen the movie "Control Room," you have probably only gotten Donald Rumsfeld's desperate description of Al-Jazeera as a propagator of hate, when all they do is show the news -- for example, the thousands of Iraqi families destroyed by American bombs, that the American press dutifully labels "collateral damage" and moves onto the sports and weather.
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