Fredom of Press in the World - US decline

[farting bob]

I think the reason why USA scored much lower than expected would be because not of government pressure, but pressure from parent companies who demand all there news be biased a certain way. Therefore the reporters arent free, since they must make 1 side look good or bad. But i dont know why its fallen 20 places in 1 year, since thats been going on for years now.
Uk 24th, not bad, not great. probably same reasons as USA, but to a lesser extent.
Interestingly, in 2004 cuba almost got a higher score than N korea, which i wouldnt expect, but this year cuba improved its score slightly.
USA's score over the years:
2002 - 4.75 (22nd)
2003 - 6.00 (31st)
2004 - 4.00 (23rd)
2005 - 9.50 (44th)
so a significant increase in score (more than doubled) in 1 year. whats happened this year to change it so much?

 

[Stapel]

I think the reason why USA scored much lower than expected would be because not of government pressure, but pressure from parent companies who demand all there news be biased a certain way. Therefore the reporters arent free, since they must make 1 side look good or bad. But i dont know why its fallen 20 places in 1 year, since thats been going on for years now.
Uk 24th, not bad, not great. probably same reasons as USA, but to a lesser extent.
Interestingly, in 2004 cuba almost got a higher score than N korea, which i wouldnt expect, but this year cuba improved its score slightly.
USA's score over the years:
2002 - 4.75 (22nd)
2003 - 6.00 (31st)
2004 - 4.00 (23rd)
2005 - 9.50 (44th)
so a significant increase in score (more than doubled) in 1 year. whats happened this year to change it so much?

The arrest of Judith Something, it's in the article .

 

[Renata]

Maybe the recent information about government planting of paid propagandists masquerading as real reporters?

This sort of thing. I think it's been covered a little bit in more mainstream sources, but this is the first one that popped up on Google for me. That's new, I think, and an issue wholly separate from the media-monopoly problem.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Romania is between Paraguay and Congo... Seems about right.

 

[Renata]

Having read the article more closely, I think the Judith Miller imprisonment is a cruddy rationale for ranking the US much lower than last year. It's not as if the laws are any different this year than they were last; how have things changed?

(Also, just a general point of clarification: many states do have laws on the books allowing reporters to protect their souces. The federal government does not.)

 

[HannibalBarka]

You better read the statistics in terms of: how far from the average a country is (expressed in Standard Deviation):
If you do so, you'll find that the difference isn't that big between the first 40 for example (we also need to know about the error margin such statistics have). Any how, if you rank the 50 richest people in the World for example, and you'll notice that number one have a fortune of 40 billion $ and number 40, 39.9 billions only, that means they are almost equally rich

Pays Note Distance to Average (STD)
Danemark 0,5 -112%
Finlande 0,5 -112%
Irlande 0,5 -112%
Islande 0,5 -112%
Norvège 0,5 -112%
Pays-Bas 0,5 -112%
Suisse 0,5 -112%
Slovaquie 0,75 -111%
République tchèque 1 -110%
Slovénie 1 -110%
Estonie 1,5 -108%
Hongrie 2 -106%
Nouvelle-Zélande 2 -106%
Suède 2 -106%
Trinidad et Tobago 2 -106%
Autriche 2,5 -104%
Lettonie 2,5 -104%
Allemagne 4 -98%
Belgique 4 -98%
Grèce 4 -98%
Canada 4,5 -96%
Lituanie 4,5 -96%
Portugal 4,83 -94%
Royaume-Uni 5,17 -93%
Bénin 5,5 -91%
Chypre 5,5 -91%
Namibie 5,5 -91%
El Salvador 5,75 -90%
Cap-Vert 6 -89%
France 6,25 -88%
Afrique du Sud 6,5 -87%
Australie 6,5 -87%
Bosnie-Herzégovine 7 -85%
Corée du Sud 7,5 -83%
Jamaïque 7,5 -83%
Maurice 7,5 -83%
Japon 8 -81%
Mali 8 -81%
Hong-Kong 8,25 -80%
Espagne 8,33 -79%
Costa Rica 8,5 -79%
Italie 8,67 -78%
Macédoine 8,75 -78%
Etats-Unis (territoire américain) 9,5 -75%
Bolivie 9,67 -74%
Uruguay 9,75 -73%
Israël 10 -72%
Bulgarie 10,25 -71%
Mozambique 10,5 -70%
Chili 11,75 -65%
République dominicaine 12,25 -63%
Taïwan 12,25 -63%
Chypre (partie Nord) 12,5 -62%
Mongolie 12,5 -62%
Pologne 12,5 -62%
Croatie 12,83 -61%
Niger 13 -60%
Timor-Leste 13,5 -58%
Argentine 13,67 -57%
Botswana 14 -56%
Fidji 14 -56%
Albanie 14,17 -55%
Brésil 14,5 -53%
Tonga 14,5 -53%
Serbie-Monténégro 14,83 -52%
Ghana 15 -51%
Panama 15 -51%
Nicaragua 15,25 -50%
Paraguay 15,5 -49%
Roumanie 16,17 -46%
Congo-Brazza 17 -43%
Guinée-Bissau 17 -43%
Seychelles 17 -43%
Moldavie 17,5 -41%
Tanzanie 17,5 -41%
Angola 18 -39%
Honduras 18 -39%
Burkina Faso 19 -35%
Sénégal 19 -35%
Ouganda 19,25 -33%
Lesotho 19,5 -32%
République centrafricaine 19,75 -31%
Cameroun 20,5 -28%
Liberia 20,5 -28%
Koweït 21,25 -25%
Guatemala 21,5 -24%
Equateur 21,75 -23%
Comores 22 -22%
Malawi 22,75 -19%
Burundi 23 -18%
Cambodge 23 -18%
Qatar 23 -18%
Venezuela 23 -18%
Zambie 23 -18%
Togo 23,75 -14%
Jordanie 24 -13%
Madagascar 24,5 -11%
Turquie 25 -9%
Géorgie 25,17 -9%
Emirats Arabes Unis 25,75 -6%
Kosovo 25,75 -6%
Arménie 26 -5%
Gabon 26 -5%
Guinée 26 -5%
Indonésie 26 -5%
Inde 27 -1%
Thaïlande 28 3%
Liban 28,25 4%
Kenya 30 12%
Tchad 30 12%
Kirghizistan 32 20%
Ukraine 32,5 22%
Malaisie 33 24%
Tadjikistan 33 24%
Sri Lanka 33,25 26%
Pérou 33,33 26%
Haïti 33,5 27%
Swaziland 35 33%
Kazakhstan 36,17 38%
Maroc 36,17 38%
Djibouti 37 41%
Rwanda 38 46%
Bahreïn 38,75 49%
Nigeria 38,75 49%
Afghanistan 39,17 50%
Sierra Leone 39,5 52%
Mauritanie 40 54%
Colombie 40,17 55%
Algérie 40,33 55%
Gambie 41 58%
Ethiopie 42 62%
Autorité palestinienne 42,5 65%
Guinée équatoriale 44 71%
Soudan 44 71%
Mexique 45,5 77%
Yémen 46,25 80%
Etats-Unis (en Irak) 48,5 90%
Russie 48,67 91%
Philippines 50 96%
Singapour 50,67 99%
Azerbaïdjan 51 100%
Bhoutan 51,5 102%
Egypte 52 105%
Côte d’Ivoire 52,25 106%
Syrie 55 117%
République démocratique du Congo 57,33 127%
Tunisie 57,5 128%
Maldives 58,5 132%
Somalie 59 134%
Pakistan 60,75 141%
Bangladesh 61,25 144%
Bélarus 61,33 144%
Zimbabwe 64,25 156%
Arabie saoudite 66 164%
Laos 66,5 166%
Ouzbékistan 66,5 166%
Irak 67 168%
Viêt-nam 73,25 194%
Chine 83 235%
Népal 86,75 251%
Cuba 87 252%
Libye 88,75 259%
Birmanie 88,83 260%
Iran 89,17 261%
Turkménistan 93,5 279%
Erythrée 99,75 306%
Corée du Nord 109 345%

 

[Rhadamenthos]

Am I wrong, or a smaller countries like Andorra, Luxembourg not mentioned in this report? So this statistic may be slightly incorrect

 

[Elrohir]

Maybe the recent information about government planting of paid propagandists masquerading as real reporters?

This sort of thing. I think it's been covered a little bit in more mainstream sources, but this is the first one that popped up on Google for me. That's new, I think, and an issue wholly separate from the media-monopoly problem.

Excuse me if I don't consider "Democracy Now!" to be an objective source.

 

[classical_hero]

I think the reason why USA scored much lower than expected would be because not of government pressure, but pressure from parent companies who demand all there news be biased a certain way. Therefore the reporters arent free, since they must make 1 side look good or bad. But i dont know why its fallen 20 places in 1 year, since thats been going on for years now.
Uk 24th, not bad, not great. probably same reasons as USA, but to a lesser extent.
Interestingly, in 2004 cuba almost got a higher score than N korea, which i wouldnt expect, but this year cuba improved its score slightly.
USA's score over the years:
2002 - 4.75 (22nd)
2003 - 6.00 (31st)
2004 - 4.00 (23rd)
2005 - 9.50 (44th)
so a significant increase in score (more than doubled) in 1 year. whats happened this year to change it so much?

It does seem that many corporation are behind this fall. I remember a SNL cartoon that was censoired by NBC because it was taking many companies in a bad light, including GE, the parent owner of NBC. It seems that many companies would rather have good news about them all the time, even when they are corrput as hell.

 

[jameson]

Excuse me if I don't consider "Democracy Now!" to be an objective source.

Reading Renata's link, it turns out that the article is a result of a front page story in the NYT ( "Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged News" , of March 13 this year).

According to a major expose in The New York Times, federal agencies under the Bush administration - from the State Department to Agriculture to the Transportation Security Administration - have been producing hundreds of pre-packaged TV segments that have been broadcast on local stations as real news.

Now I know that it's standard practice to disparage the source when people don't like a story, so I'll give you a link from the Washington Post too, one from CNN and one from ABC just in case. Happy now ?

 

[Christmann]

It seems that many companies would rather have good news about them all the time, even when they are corrupt as hell.

Damn, that's really odd. Are you sure?