'Drastic decline' in media freedom worldwide (including the US, Russia, China, Iran, Syria, etc.)
Media freedom suffered a "drastic decline" worldwide last year in part because of extremist groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram, the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders said in its annual evaluation released Thursday. The Reporters Without Borders 2015 World Press Freedom Index stated that there was an eight percent increase in the violations of freedom of information in 180 countries in 2014 compared to the 2013, according to its statistically weighted calculation.
RSF's ranking put Iran, China, Syria and North Korea among the countries with the very worst levels of press freedom out of the 180 evaluated.
The best-rated nations were northern European states such as Finland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden, with New Zealand, Canada and Jamaica also making the top 10.
The United States ranked 49, three spots lower than in the previous report, in part because of what RSF said was the US government's "war on information" against WikiLeaks and others. In South America, Venezuela stood out with a 20-notch fall to a ranking of 137 due to the National Bolivarian Guard opening fire on clearly identified journalists during demonstrations. Russia slipped to the 152nd spot after introducing "another string of draconian laws," website blocking and the extinction of independent media.
http://news.yahoo.com/drastic-decline-press-freedom-reporters-without-borders-051059516.html
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