“Sarah Huckabee (click here) Sanders claims that press freedom in the United States is in good standing and that her presence at the briefing proves it," RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “Spokespersons exist in all regimes, regardless of the level of freedom. President Trump’s spokesperson is in denial when she describes the United States’ ranking in the Index as ridiculous and rejects his own responsibility. In addition to Trump’s incessant harassment of reporters and media in his first year in office, there was also a well-documented increase in arrests, violent attacks, and online harassment of journalists at the local level. It's hard to believe how anyone could look at this data and find a decline in press freedom in this country ridiculous.”
To be frankly honest, professionals of most practices are under attack by this White House.
Despite having strong constitutional protections (click here) to the contrary, the latest World Press Freedom Index findings on the US and Canada reveal two countries whose journalists and media workers face constant challenges to the very freedom to exercise their profession.
The United States’ ranking fell from 43 to 45 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) 2018 World Press Freedom Index, continuing its downward trend in the first year of Donald J. Trump’s presidency. In contrast, its northern neighbor Canada gained 4 places due to steps taken to safeguard the confidentiality of journalists’ sources....
...The violent anti-press rhetoric from the White House has been coupled with an increase in the number of press freedom violations at the local level as journalists run the risk of arrest for covering protestsor simply attempting to ask public officials questions. Reporters have even been subject to physical assault while on the job....
A free press is under attack in the USA. The press, in the USA, are always provided standing when the First Amendment is at work and people are protesting unfair treatment. The Dakota Access pipeline was being built on ancient burial grounds and no one was stopping it in respect for the sacred definition of the land. Ms. Monet was doing her job and doing it well. The idea there are criminal charges against her is outrageous.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) (click here) calls for all criminal charges to be dropped against Jenni Monet, a journalist who was arrested February 1 while covering protests against the Dakota Access pipeline.
Monet was released on bond late on February 2. She has been charged with trespassing and "engaging in a riot" by Morton County, North Dakota prosecutors.
Monet maintains that she was simply doing her job as a journalist to cover a protest camp near the Standing Rock reservation as police attempted to disband it. At the time of her arrest she was on assignment for Indian Country Daily and the Center for Investigative Reporting.
Monet said she was standing at a distance from the protesters and identified herself as a journalist. She told the Los Angeles Times yesterday that after police told her to leave she complied: "I was walking away, I was halfway down the hill, and they still arrested me." She also says officers never read her her Miranda rights and she was detained for 7 hours with other women "stripped down to our long johns” in metal cages in a parking garage near the Morton County jail, before being transferred to an indoor cell.
Monet, 40, also contributes frequently to PBS "News Hour."
