Our press freedoms are in the toilet

By Bruce Maples | Forward Kentucky

Since 2002, Reporters Without Borders has done an annu­al rat­ing of free­dom of the press by coun­try. And the results for the United States are disturbing.

The rat­ing is based on a sur­vey of jour­nal­ists around the world, along with events in each coun­try that affect­ed press freedom.

In 2002, the best rat­ing for press free­dom was a tie among Finland, Iceland, Norway, and the Netherlands, with Canada just behind. That year, the United States was 17^th, right behind Costa Rica and just ahead of Hong Kong.

And the bot­tom coun­tries that year? Myanmar, China, and North Korea.

For some rea­son, the U.S. was not includ­ed in the results from 2003 to 2012. Then we appear again in 2013, ranked at #32 out of 179 coun­tries. Finland was still on top that year, and North Korea and Eritrea were on the bottom.

Now, watch our rank­ings over the next twelve years:

• 2014 – 46^th
• 2015 – 49^th
• 2016 – 41^st
• 2017 – 43^rd
• 2018 – 45^th
• 2019 – 48^th
• 2020 – 45^th
• 2021 – 44^th
• 2022 – 42^nd
• 2023 – 45^th
• 2024 – 55^th
• 2025 – 57^th

And now, in the year 2026 and the sec­ond year of Trump’s sec­ond term, we are at #64 in press free­doms
– right behind Botswana and ahead of Panama.

And our sup­posed allies? Germany is at 14, the UK is at 18, Canada is at 20, and France is at 25.

Hell’s bells – Ukraine is at 55, and five for­mer Soviet Union coun­tries (Armenia at 50,Moldova 31, Latvia 17, Lithuania 15, and Estonia at 3!) are all ahead of us.

This rank­ing should shame us all. Those of us in the jour­nal­ism space will do all we can to call atten­tion to this dis­grace­ful fall – but it’s up to you, the indi­vid­ual cit­i­zen and vot­er, to demand that our nation respect free­dom of the press, from the pres­i­dent all the way down to our local elect­ed officials.

Understand that a free press is essen­tial to a democ­ra­cy, and a shack­led and muz­zled press is a blar­ing alarm say­ing “This is a democ­ra­cy in name only.” The first step for any dic­ta­tor is to attack the press, on the way to silenc­ing them completely.

Remember what these founders and lead­ers said about free­dom of the press:

Our lib­er­ty depends on the free­dom of the press, and that can­not be lim­it­ed with­out being lost.
– Thomas Jefferson

The free­dom of the press is one of the great bul­warks of lib­er­ty, and can nev­er be restrained but by despot­ic gov­ern­ments.
– George Mason

Whoever would over­throw the lib­er­ty of a nation must begin by sub­du­ing the free­ness of speech.
– Benjamin Franklin

The Government’s pow­er to cen­sor the press was abol­ished so that the press would remain for­ev­er free to cen­sure the Government. The press was pro­tect­ed so that it could bare the secrets of gov­ern­ment and inform the peo­ple. Only a free and unre­strained press can effec­tive­ly expose decep­tion in gov­ern­ment.
– Hugo Black

A nation that is afraid to let its peo­ple judge the truth and false­hood in an open mar­ket is a nation that is afraid of its peo­ple.
– John F. Kennedy

Canonical URL: https://www.forwardky.com/our-press-freedoms-are-in-the-toilet/