The Lisbon Reporter

WELCOME TO THE LISBON REPORTER. In an effort to keep our community informed of what is going on at local and Federal levels of government, we decided to create this on-line newspaper. It is our hope that this on-line newspaper will help you stay informed so that you can get involved and take action for the benefit of our ENTIRE community. Thank you for visiting and please check back frequently for information about what is happening in LISBON/LISBON FALLS, MAINE USA

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Not Only Do We Incur Locally But Also Worldly; GOPDD:Press Freedom in US falls 13 Spots in One Year Under Obama‏

Posted on 15 February, 2014 by Rick Wells

Americans have grown up being taught that we are the land of the free. An absolutely critical component to maintaining that freedom is a free press. In a study recently conducted by the World Press Freedom index, some serious problems with freedom of the press in the United States were exposed.

America fell 13 positions in just one year, one of the most precipitous falls of modern times. We now rank behind many former Soviet states.

Much of the drop was attributed directly to the Obama regime’s war on whistleblowers. There have been more lawsuits filed against whistleblowers under Obama than in all of the previous administrations combined.
America now finds itself behind the former Soviet republics of Lithuania and Latvia, as well as former satellite nations of Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia). Ghana, South Africa and El Salvador now rank higher in press freedom than does the United States.

On Tuesday, Reporters Without Borders issued a statement saying, “Countries that pride themselves on being democracies and respecting the rule of law have not set an example, far from it. Freedom of information is too often sacrificed to an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national security needs, marking a disturbing retreat from democratic practices. Investigative journalism often suffers as a result.”

“This has been the case in the United States (46th), which fell 13 places, one of the most significant declines, amid increased efforts to track down whistleblowers and the sources of leaks. The trial and conviction of Private Bradley Manning and the pursuit of NSA analyst Edward Snowden were warnings to all those thinking of assisting in the disclosure of sensitive information that would clearly be in the public interest.”