Freedom and War

April 28, 2009
Posted by Jay Livingston

Reporters Without Borders publishes an annual index of press freedom. We Americans value freedom so highly that it has become the basis of our major operations (Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom). So you would expect the US would be right up there at the top.

But no, on the 2008 list, the US comes in ranked at #36, well behind most European countries, though not all (I’m looking at you, Italy). And there are some surprises in the Caribbean as well. Reporters in Jamaica or Trinidad and Tobago are freer than their counterparts in the US.

Rank Country Note

• 1 Iceland 1,50
• - Luxembourg 1,50
• - Norway 1,50
• 4 Estonia 2,00
• - Finland 2,00
• - Ireland 2,00
• 7 Belgium 3,00
• - Latvia 3,00
• - New Zealand 3,00
• - Slovakia 3,00
• - Sweden 3,00
• - Switzerland 3,00
• 13 Canada 3,33
• 14 Austria 3,50
• - Denmark 3,50
• 16 Czech Republic 4,00
• - Lithuania 4,00
• - Netherlands 4,00
• - Portugal 4,00
• 20 Germany 4,50
• 21 Jamaica 4,88
• 22 Costa Rica 5,10
• 23 Hungary 5,50
• - Namibia 5,50
• - United Kingdom 5,50
• 26 Surinam 6,00
• 27 Trinidad and Tobago 6,13
• 28 Australia 6,25
• 29 Japan 6,50
• 30 Slovenia 7,33
• 31 Cyprus 7,50
• - Ghana 7,50
• - Greece 7,50
• - Mali 7,50
• 35 France 7,67
• 36 Bosnia and Herzegovina 8,00
• - Cape Verde 8,00
• - South Africa 8,00
• - Spain 8,00
• - Taiwan 8,00
• - United States of America 8,00
• 42 Macedonia 8,25
• 43 Uruguay 8,33
• 44 Italy 8,42
• 45 Croatia 8,50
• 46 Israel (Israeli territory) 8,83

(You can find the full list at the RWB Website. The Wikipedia entry is better visually.)

The index is based on things like censorship (including a measure of self-censorship), murders and threats against journalists, imprisonment of journalists, and other forms of harassment. It consists “not only of abuses attributable to the state, but also those by armed militias, clandestine organisations and pressure groups.”

RWB looks around the world and draws some conclusions about the social, political, and economic conditions that make for more or less press freedom

1. Europe dominates the free end of the list
2. Economic prosperity doesn’t have as large an effect as you might think. (Singapore is #144, Jamaica is #21)
3. Democracy is good for press freedom
4. Even in democracies, two things undermine press freedom: Corruption and War
   

The Iraq war, for instance. The US rank of 36 is an improvement over its 2007 rank of 48.

The release of Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami Al-Haj after six years in the Guantanamo Bay military base contributed to this improvement.

Al Jazeera, Mr Al-Haj’s employer, is one of the three largest international news channels (BBC and CNN are the other two). But except in a couple of small media markets, it cannot be seen in the US. Maybe that’s why RWB includes measure of self-censorship, financial pressure, and the actions of non-government groups.

And if a businessman broadcasts Al Manar, the Hezbollah channel, he goes to prison for six years. Officially, this case is not about freedom of the press. The businessman’s crime was doing business with Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist group. I wonder how Reporters Without Borders will classify this case.