The Land of the (Not So) Free Press

Democracy risks dying in darkness as the freedom of the press becomes an increasingly endangered commodity in the US, reports Matt Bernardini

As the 2024 Presidential election campaign gets underway and politicians and pundits fret about threats to democracy, America’s journalism industry remains woefully under-examined, even though the country’s press freedom scores are plummeting even faster than its democracy scores. 

The US, the supposed bastion of freedom, now ranks 55th in the latest index from the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders. The country is about even with Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Belize. It’s eight spots lower than Poland, a country which has repeatedly been criticized by scholars and human rights groups for its crackdown on democracy. Shockingly, the US is only six spots ahead of war-torn Ukraine, and only 12 spots ahead of Hungary, which has become the new model for illiberal democracy. 

“Despite this rhetoric, many of the chronic, underlying issues affecting journalists remain unaddressed, and Biden himself has come under criticism for failing to press US partners like Israel and Saudi Arabia on press freedom,” Reporters Without Borders said.