Press Freedom Slipping

Each year Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists, issues a Worldwide Press Freedom Index ranking 168 countries according to how well they respect freedom of speech. In their just-issued new report, the United States ranking has fallen along with France and Japan. The U.S. ranked 17th in the group's first report, published in 2002, but it has now fallen to 53. North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China continue to rank at the bottom of the list, while "Northern European countries top the index, with no reported censorship, threats, intimidation or physical reprisals, either by officials or the public, in Finland, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands. All of those countries were ranked in first place."