US Plummets On World Press Freedom Ranking 427
Jeremiah Cornelius writes "Reporters Without Borders released its 2011-2012 global Press Freedom Index. The indicators for press freedom in the U.S. are dramatic, with a downward movement from 27th to 47th in the global ranking, from the previous year. Much of this is correlated directly to the arrest and incarceration of American journalists covering the 'Occupy' protest movements in New York and across the country. 'This is especially troubling as we head into an election year which is sure to spark new conflicts between police and press covering rallies, protests and political events.' Only Chile, who dropped from 33 to 80, joined the U.S. in falling over 100% of their previous ranking. Similarly, Chile was downgraded for 'freedom of information violations committed by the security forces during student protests.'"
Thank the drug war ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Thank the drug war and the war on terror for the militarization of the police.
http://www.thenation.com/blog/164695/former-seattle-police-chief-ows-reveals-militarization-our-police-forces [thenation.com]
Some kind of irony (Score:5, Interesting)
Seven of the nations that rank "more free" than the United States are former Soviet bloc states.
Re:Since when (Score:2, Interesting)
Freedom of the press is about publishing without interference, not about being able to go anywhere one wants.
It includes being able to go anywhere you should normally be able to legally go so long as it doesn't unduly compromise your safety, and the only thing going on which unduly compromised their safety was illegal actions by police.
What happened to the journalists trying to cover OWS was no good, but it wasn't a freedom of the press issue.
[citation needed]
Numbers Please for the "Occupy" Repression (Score:3, Interesting)
Given the simply *massive* amount of coverage that the "Occupy" protests got and the sheer amount of "journalists" covering all of the various camp-ins, sit-ins, poop-on-cop-car-ins, etc... that happened, I don't remember seeing/hearing much about any journalists being arrested.
That could be because maybe their freedom of speech was being restricted, although I remember all the countless hours of "our freedom of speech is being violated" interviews, articles, and counter-counter-protests, and docu-dramas -- but not that. /snark
I would like to know the following:
1). The exact *TOTAL* number of reporters that were arrested covering "Occupy" in the US. So far I see one.
1). Percentage, as a whole, of reporters that were arrested or detained directly covering the "Occupy" movement. Raw numbers would be nice as well.
2). Percentage of reporters arrested that were violating a federal, state, or municipal law at the time.
3). Percentage of reporters arrested that were accredited journalists with professional news organizations rather than blogs/activist newspapers/facebook posters.
I didn't see a whole lot of journalistic "repression" going on while I did see a lot of very mixed-up people talk endlessly about how they're being repressed to the nearest video camera or recording device while violating laws. I got nearly two months of media coverage in video, press, and web forms. I couldn't turn on the news without hearing about "Occupy".
It ain't just the US (Score:4, Interesting)
Holland keeps its third place but loses a whole 9 points (US lost 14), the only reason we are still 3rd is because everyone started from a worse positin but it is hardly good. Wonder if anyone dares to call out Rukker on this (Previous Prime Minsters was Bakellende, the cambion offspring off Bush and Blair, Rukker is that guys pet rock, an object with absolutely no ideas, opinions or passion)... doubt it, probably everyone pats themselves on the back for still being 3rd no matter how steep the downwards slope is.
Re:That will happen ... (Score:2, Interesting)
In my country, a soldier would be expected to go beyond his command structure if he has information of the type that Manning had. In fact, theoretically he should be persecuted if he doesn't do so -- but sadly, that persecution doesn't succeed. (Witness Oberst Klein at the Kunduz bombing.)
Re:"I've got one that can SEE!" -- They Live (Score:2, Interesting)
I am the tool of the government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you
I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think Im delicious
With the stuff that I say
I am the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I am the slime oozin out
From your tv set
-- Frank Zappa "The Slime"
Journalist arrest not a crack down on media. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's kind of ironic... (Score:3, Interesting)
Untrue. The reporters employed by the Fox affiliate in question were not told to lie, they were told to give the opposing side of the story. Furthermore, the court ruled that the plaintiffs had no case because the Fox affiliate broke no laws, not that Fox News could lie to its viewers.
Re:"I've got one that can SEE!" -- They Live (Score:5, Interesting)
To quote Brother George Carlin:
The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else.
But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their interests. They don't want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they're getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.
You know what they want? Obedient workers people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they're coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They'll get it. They'll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club.
This country is finished.
I do wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
Today's news on ./ -- particularly depressing (Score:5, Interesting)
SOPA may be on hold, but I fear that we might be losing the war against big content providers and others who want to restrict our rights for financial or political gain. While I appreciate being made aware of these troubling developments, I find today's news to be incredibly distressing and depressing. While the war isn't over, I feel the balance is beginning to shift against us. What else can we do to tip the scales?
Re:quick (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No shit! (Score:2, Interesting)
You must have been asleep for the last three years. Obama has wholeheartedly embraced what Bush was doing and has taken Federal powers, and thus his own, to new levels.
Asleep maybe. I'm not in the US so I get a very general picture of what's happening over there. OTOH you simply made another assertion without citations.
Re:Some kind of irony (Score:2, Interesting)
Brilliant comeback. I have to admit that your sharp wit simply overwhelms me.
Now in Poland you can be fined for insulting the Bible. But yes, that has nothing to do with the press' freedom compared to the US.
"“Whoever offends the religious feelings of other persons by outraging in public an object of religious worship or space for the public performance of religious rites, shall be subject to a fine, restriction of liberty or imprisonment for 2 years.”'\
In the UK, journalists can be arrested for disclosing non-authorized statements from police officers and there are other restrictions on the press that would simply not be thinkable in the US.
Yet both countries rank considerably higher than the US.
But yes, your Ostrich statement trumps all this.
Re:"I've got one that can SEE!" -- They Live (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm going to have do disagree with George Carlin on the last part of that. What they want is more than enough for themselves, and less than enough for everybody else. That way the can live high on the hog while being securely in charge of everything because everyone else is scrambling to get by. For our parents generation, this meant making people believe they needed more stuff, because there was just way to much of it. But it will not be the same for us. We will all be working our fingers to be bone while our parents retire in relative comfort. Retirement funds and social security will be protected, but younger people will work themselves to death for it. The last round of economic bailouts proved that strategy would work, so we'll probably seeing more of it over the next couple decades.
Re:No shit! (Score:2, Interesting)
Lies are lies, I only made it to #1 before I stopped reading.
The Republicans, with a minority in House and not able to filibuster in the Senate, blocked Obama from closing Gitmo? I didn't realize the rules for Congress changed so much that not being able to stop any legislation = stopping legislation.
Perhaps if you stopped blaming people who had nothing to do with your complaints and stopping giving passes to ones who do things would be better. As it is YOU support a party that is apparently against your own interests in issues. In other words its blatently your own fault.
A quick view of #6 is also a lie. Having gotten cancer just after Obamacare passed, it hasn't helped me a shred. In fact all Obamacare means to me is a couple of tax increases. I can only deduct medical expenses over 7% instead of the old 4%, which means I can't deduct medical expenses. FSAs were reduced, another tax increase. My medical benefits are now taxed as income. Benefits??? None, because I am middle class taxpayer and Obama has apparently declared war on me.
Skeptical about one of the top rankings (Score:5, Interesting)
Icelandic journalists complain of losing libel cases when all they've done is to publish court records, of fear of retaliation, and of a climate of self-censorship.
One broadcaster was hit with an injunction to prevent them from publishing details about banking misconduct.
Iceland was one of the top-rated countries in that report.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:"falling over 100% of their previous ranking" (Score:5, Interesting)
If you haven't, read some of Thomas Jefferson's writings. It's shameful how far we've turned from our original ideal, embodied in the Constitution - I know, "just a god damned piece of paper!" - but he warned about just such a possibility. 200+ years can dull the senses and purpose of a country. Seems like it might be time to learn our lesson all over again.
Re:"falling over 100% of their previous ranking" (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd urge everyone to read this article that drives a stake in the "job creators and lower taxes' lie
For a guy with "a double major in math and physics", he doesn't know much about presenting and interpreting data. Where's the r-squared value for those linear regression curves? There's also no reason to believe the relationship he's found is causative. If governments cut taxes in anticipation of a recession, you'd see the same sort of curves on the last chart.
I'm no "supply sider" by a long shot. But weak data doesn't help anyone.