Watchdog says US press freedom falls

(dpa) - Freedom of the press continued to decline in the United States, primarily because of President George W Bush's "war on terrorism," the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Monday. In the organization's annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, which was issued in Paris, the United States fell nine places, to 53rd place in the world, to rank equally with Botswana, Tonga and Croatia. In 2002, the United States had ranked 17th. The primary reason for the steep drop was Bush's campaign against terrorism, in which "the president used the pretext of 'national security' to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his "war on terrorism'," RSF said.
Reporters Without Borders also slammed US federal courts, "which... refuse to recognise the media's right not to reveal its sources, (and) even (threaten) journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism." Japan, which fell 14 places, to 51st, was another country singled out by RSF, which said that the country's democratic gains were threatened by "rising nationalism and the system of exclusive press clubs.
" Last year's controversy over the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed caused Denmark to drop from a shared top spot to 19th in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index because, as RSF said, "for the first time in recent years in a country that is very observant of civil liberties, journalists had to have police protection." The worst offenders in media repression continued to be North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China, where journalists "are still risking their lives or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed," RSF said. Media freedom has even deteriorated in the three countries at the bottom of the rankings, North Korea (at 168th), Turkmenistan (167th) and Eritrea (166th), the group noted. "The torture death of Turkmenistan journalist Ogulsapar Muradova shows that the country's leader, 'President-for-Life' Separmurad Nyazov, is willing to use extreme violence against those who dare to criticize him," RSF said.
Reporters without Borders also expressed concern over "a number of Eritrean journalists who have been imprisoned in secret for more than five years," and said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il "continues to totally control the media." Four Western European countries headed the Press Freedom Index - Finland, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands - while the Czech Republic was ranked just behind this group.
Source: www.bangkokpost.com