US 53rd in World Press Freedom Index

Despite the promises of freedom of the press made by the United States in the first amendment to the Constitution, the country continues to sink from it's initial 17th place as the Bush administration continues to use its "war on terror" as a means of grinding journalists under its boot heel. This year the US finds itself languishing at 53rd along with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga far behind Bosnia and Herzegovina (19th) and Namibia (26). This is according to the Worldwide Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.

The report sites these incidents as specific examples of how the Bush administration has attacked the freedom of the press:

Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his video archives. Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who works for the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantanamo, and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held by US authorities in Iraq since April this year.

According to the report the top countries are Finland, Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands, which all share first place.