USA drops two points from last year 43 to 45 in World Press Freedom in 2018

[ichingcarpenter]

According to Reporters without borders

At the turn of the 21st century, nearly half of the world population still lacks access to free information.
Deprived of knowledge that is essential for managing their lives, denied their very existence, they are prevented from living in pluralist political systems in which factual truth serves as the basis for individual and collective choices.


Freedom of information is the freedom that allows you to verify the existence of all the other freedoms.
Win Tin, Burmese journalist


GUARANTEEING ALL THE FREEDOMS
There can be no freedom of thought without knowledge of reality. In 1948, the United Nations said in article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that “freedom of opinion and expression” implies the right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

See rankings on the right side and scroll down to find your country.....


https://rsf.org/en/ranking

[ichingcarpenter]

Julian Assange Prosecution Threatens Everyone's Press Freedom

Jimmy Dore breaks it down


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7_2M9DqOFQ


Thanks Ecuador......

Ecuador Will Imminently Withdraw Asylum for Julian Assange and Hand Him Over to the UK. What Comes Next?
........... Glenn Greenwald


ECUADOR’S PRESIDENT Lenin Moreno traveled to London on Friday for the ostensible purpose of speaking at the 2018 Global Disabilities Summit (Moreno has been using a wheelchair since being shot in a 1998 robbery attempt). The concealed, actual purpose of the President’s trip is to meet with British officials to finalize an agreement under which Ecuador will withdraw its asylum protection of Julian Assange, in place since 2012, eject him from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and then hand over the WikiLeaks founder to British authorities.

Moreno’s itinerary also notably includes a trip to Madrid, where he will meet with Spanish officials still seething over Assange’s denunciation of human rights abuses perpetrated by Spain’s central government against protesters marching for Catalonia independence. Almost three months ago, Ecuador blocked Assange from accessing the internet, and Assange has not been able to communicate with the outside world ever since. The primary factor in Ecuador’s decision to silence him was Spanish anger over Assange’s tweets about Catalonia.


A source close to the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry and the President’s office, unauthorized to speak publicly, has confirmed to the Intercept that Moreno is close to finalizing, if he has not already finalized, an agreement to hand over Assange to the UK within the next several weeks. The withdrawal of asylum and physical ejection of Assange could come as early as this week. On Friday, RT reported that Ecuador was preparing to enter into such an agreement.

The consequences of such an agreement depend in part on the concessions Ecuador extracts in exchange for withdrawing Assange’s asylum. But as former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa told the Intercept in an interview in May, Moreno’s government has returned Ecuador to a highly “subservient” and “submissive” posture toward western governments.


more


https://theintercept.com/2018/07/21/...at-comes-next/

[Cardillac]

if it were not for alternative media sources the US would rank last; the US and Germany are the countries that censor the most-

Larry

[A Voice from the Mountains]

Posted by Cardillac (here)
if it were not for alternative media sources the US would rank last; the US and Germany are the countries that censor the most-

No one ever makes these lists for free; there is always some broader agenda behind them being created in the first place.

I follow American, British, French, and German media outlets. We are probably all familiar with American and British corporate media and how dishonest they all are, and profit-driven, without any particular concern for truth. But it's amazing how much creativity the language barrier provides disingenuous reporters. I've seen Le Monde outright lie about what is being stated in English more than once. All they have to do is fudge a couple of words and it changes the entire tone and meaning of a statement.

It also seems that a lack of any basic understanding of American culture and political philosophy is a requirement for all European news outlets. When referencing political positions in the US that are contrary to their own, I've noticed that European outlets simply insinuate that Americans are inexplicably ignorant, and never bother explaining the points of contention between the two sides of an argument. It's as if the "correct" position on the issue is a foregone conclusion, and to allow people to hear the other side of the argument will just "corrupt" them and make them think undesirable things. It's a form of censorship, very much like in the Soviet media, which was of course also extremely ideological and intolerant of diversity of thought.

[Foxie Loxie]

I thought it was very telling that David Icke was not allowed to speak in Germany....of course he was just banned in Manchester as well! I think he would have appealed to a much wider audience if he has left out the Reptillian thing. But we each are led on our own particular Journey & his DID have an amazing beginning which does show that there are "others" involved in the Agenda here on Earth...IMHO.

[Cardillac]

@Foxie

I don't think Icke is being banned because of the "reptilian agenda" but because of his exposure in all countries of the incompetence of bribed, compromised gov't officials; they maybe "repitilian influenced" but we just don't know for sure- in any case they've all been monetarily compromised-

Larry