The United States ranks 47th on the Press Freedom Index issued by Reporters Without Borders

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3. Most of it appears aimed at governments in general

"The United States (47th) also owed its fall of 27 places to the many arrests of journalist covering Occupy Wall Street protests."

They were not arrested for what they were reporting! They were arrested for doing something. Are they saying journalists should be able to do whatever they want and violate any laws, just because? That's ridiculous. Journalists here can go to court to fight criminal cases filed against them, and it is impossible for the government to file a case against them for reporting since there are no laws against reporting or publishing anything (short of a few exotic things like threats to the POTUS, but it's the threat and not the reporting).

We have complete freedom of the press here, and anyone who thinks it is violated can take it to court and have it declared unconstitutional as in the alien and sedition laws or whatever. Their excuse for putting the US that low is absurd. The US should always be number one just for having the First Amendment and 200 years of cases and case law interpreting it.