02.14.07
The News You Can Trust?
Having done some research for a previous post about China, I found a very interesting website that monitors enemies of the free press around the world. Reporters Without Borders For Press Freedom (www.rsf.org) complies a worldwide list of countries who are unfriendly to members of and the dissemination of the free press. This Worldwide Press Freedom Index ranks countries using a questionnaire that is sent out to other freedom organizations, international correspondents, journalists, researchers, and activists around the world. The 50 questions deal with how much freedom journalists receive in each country and how supportive these countries are to ensuring this freedom. The index bases its rankings on press freedoms rather than human rights freedoms.
Looking at the list of 168 countries is very interesting and somewhat surprising in many ways. At the top of the list, those countries that provide the greatest freedoms to the press include Finland, Iceland, Ireland, and the Netherlands (all tied for first). No real surprises there. The United States, however, ranks 53 along with Botswana, Croatia, and Tonga. For a country that purports to have the greatest freedoms of rights, expression, and press in the world, that’s not such a great ranking U.S.A.! Tied with Tonga? Does anyone even know where Tonga is? The bottom of the list, those that provide the worst conditions for free press include Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Burma, Cuba, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, and North Korea. Again, no big surprises there.
The types of things that cause a country to move up or down the index each year include if any journalists were murdered, imprisoned, attacked, deported, went missing, were kidnapped, or fled on their own. As for the general availability of free press to its citizens, violations such as censorship, state controlled media monopolies, controlled access to journalistic training, unavailability of the Internet, and the forced closing of various news agencies were all considered in ranking each country.
I think this type of monitoring of media availability of countries around the world is one of the most important things to be concerned with when it comes to understanding how the world works and who’s really in charge of it all. People are only as informed as their governments allow them to be. While North Koreans continue to believe that the entire world is out to get them, how can we blame them for hating the West since that’s all they hear about from the day they are born through government run television, radio, and newspapers? Who’s to say what we hear in the United States is what is really going on in the world? All you need to do is spend time watching CNN International or Al Jazeera International to see a completely different viewpoint on the same topics cover on regular CNN. Even watching MSNBC versus Fox News can give you varied facts and skewed spins on the exact same stories. It’s enough to make your head spin and never watch another news report again! I imagine Winston Smith working away in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth whispering into his speakwrite the newest “truths” Big Brother wants us to know. It truly is a frightening parallel!
I encourage you to visit the Reporters Without Borders website (www.rsf.org) and find out for yourself who the many enemies of the free press really are. With education we gain power and strength, but just remember and be weary of where you’re getting that information from!
Latest posts by ZoeWashburne
- Censorship Is An Ugly Word Too - April 17th, 2007
- The Mayans and Their Doomsday Calendar - April 11th, 2007
- Mysterious Hexagon Shape Discovered on Saturn - April 3rd, 2007
- The Secret Order of the Illuminati - March 26th, 2007
- Skull and Bones Society - March 18th, 2007
- What is Bilderberg? - March 12th, 2007
- Calling all "V"s to Washington! - March 9th, 2007
- Secrets: Part One - March 6th, 2007
- Just Five Minutes A Day - February 24th, 2007
- Symbols or Coincidence of the NWO? - February 20th, 2007
- The Secrets of Bohemian Grove - February 18th, 2007
- Secret Societies: The Freemasons - February 11th, 2007
- Enemies of the Free Press: China - February 9th, 2007
- What's Up With The Bird Flu Already? - February 5th, 2007
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force...Terrorist Masterminds! - February 2nd, 2007
Ed Howes said,
February 19, 2007 at 12:50 am
Zoe,
Most of the people who are taught to hate America would hate America no less for knowing the truth.
The internet is helping to get the skeletons out of the closet and many once proud and arrogant Americans are feeling a lot of shame and revulsion over the things their ancestors began and successive generations have continued. Better believe the internet is on the agenda for corporate control. Let us speak now or forever hold our peace.