A Reporters Without Borders study detailing the latest Press Freedom Index revealed a 27-spot drop for the United States, down to a tie for 47th place. The 15 percent plunge in the index may seem staggering for a country that has “freedom of the press” guaranteed by the 1st amendment of the U.S. Constitution. However, a variety of bills that have either been proposed or passed in the past year have brought the US rating closer to third world countries.
Most recently, clauses in the Nation Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) have garnered national attention for claims that they violate the Constitution. After 9/11, the USA/Patriot Act was passed as a quick reaction to counter-terrorism by implementing new surveillance standards.
According to the Reporters Without Borders study, The U.S. is now on par with Argentina and Romania in a 47th place tie out of 179 countries surveyed. The tumble in the rankings is attributed “to the many arrests of journalist[sic] covering Occupy Wall Street protests.” Last November saw multiple instances of journalists covering the Occupy protests being arrested and beaten by law enforcement.
Josh Stearns has been tracking the number of journalists arrested at Occupy events in the U.S. for Free Press, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group with the objective of media reform. Stearns writes that, as of September,
36 journalists have been arrested in 10 cities around the United States since Occupy Wall Street began. Including citizen journalists affiliated with a variety of Occupy media teams the total is 50.”
Going back to 2002, the U.S. has been given two rankings – in 2006 and 2007 – worse than the one given in the current index.
- 2010 – 20
- 2009 – 20
- 2008 – 36
- 2007 – 48
- 2006 – 53
- 2005 – 44
- 2004 – 22
- 2003 – 31
- 2002 – 17
To compile the index, Reporters Without Borders “prepared a questionnaire with 44 main criteria indicative of the state of press freedom.”
Limiting freedom
On December 31 President Barack Obama signed the NDAA into law. The yearly congressional measure traditionally lays out military and defense expenditures. However, one aspect of the bill differentiates this NDAA from others in the past. The bill contains a clause that would allow the U.S. to suspend due process and habeas corpus while being allowed to indefinitely detain anyone they suspect of terrorism-related activities. That portion of the bill is a violation of the 5th and 6th amendments.
The NDAA clause has caused a fierce backlash across the country, going so far as attempts to implement recall elections for supporters of the measure.
On January 20, Congress shelved SOPA, a bill that aimed to stop online piracy, but was criticized for setting rules that would censor the Internet and violating the first amendment. CNN Money writer Julianne Pepitone explained the bill aimed to “crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content.”
In the weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress passed the USA/Patriot Act that made it legal for the U.S. government to use surveillance methods, such as wiretapping, to investigate – at its discretion – potential plots of terror. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noted that the act violated the 1st and 4th amendments for violations of free speech and conducting unreasonable searches.
Social impact?
It’s impossible to say whether the events are mutually exclusive, but the passage of freedom-restricting bills could play into the well being of society. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index showed 57 percent of those polled on December 26 said they experienced a lot of happiness and enjoyment. On January 9 – a little over a week after the NDAA signing and prior to SOPA being shelved – the index had fallen to 48 percent while the number of respondents identifying themselves as living with a lot of stress and worry rose.
The U.S. Congress is also working with some of its lowest job approval ratings recorded. Real Clear Politics currently has the average congressional job approval rating of various polling sources at 13.2 percent. That number is down from 24.4 percent this time last year.
Feature photo | Aramil Liadon