The UK and US have slipped down the Press Freedom Index after a year in which the US government has sought to prosecute whistleblowers and sent Chelsea Manning to jail, and the UK government have taken angle-grinders to harddrives containing information from Edward Snowden.
The UK fell from to 29th to 33rd, mostly as a result of how the government dealt with the publishing of leaks from former NSA analyst Edward Snowden in the Guardian. The government reportedly discussed trying to get the newspaper shut down, and eventualy brought angle-grinders to the Guardian computers holding the Snowden information, even if the data was backed up elsewhere and the destruction a largely symbolic act.
British newspapers have also been strong-armed into accepting a Royal Charter that curbs their freedom to report after the Leveson inquiry, but libel reform finally happened, with the British High Court no longer a avenue to silence critics.
The US fell more sharply from 32nd to 46th, with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) highlighting the plights of Chelsea Manning who faces 35 years in jail for leaking a huge trove of documents to Wikileaks, and independent journalist Barrett Brown who faces a 105 year sentence for for linking to files hacked by Anonymous in a story. The Department of Justice also admitted seizing the phone records of the Associated Press (AP) under the guise of “national security”, and the administration continues to hunt for Edward Snowden.
Elsewhere, Finland tops the list for the fourth year in a row, followed by the Netherlands and Norway, with Eritrea, North Korea, and Turkmenistan continuing to occupy the bottom three places.
