Freedom of the Press Worldwide (2014)
According to the site Freedom House, the United States has a press status of “free” indicating that this nation values the work of journalists and affords them with certain protections. For instance, the First Amendment and the United States Constitution work in favor of journalists by giving them legal protection to do their job under the umbrella of freedom of speech and press freedom. In this country, reporters, journalists and other members of the press have the ability to report on any issue that they see fit without fear of being detained, injured or killed by the ruling authorities. Although this is the case, there are still avenues where the press has not been allowed the highest level of freedom in comparison to other parts of the world, particularly parts of western Europe. In the Reporters Without Borders 2014 World Press Freedom Index the United States is ranked at the 46th position indicating that it fell 13 places in comparison with 2013. This decline in placement can be attributed to the 2013 national security policies that led to setbacks for the United States. According to Freedom House, “press freedom suffered from heightened restrictions on reporters’ access to officials from the Obama administration and to government information, particularly concerning national security; government eavesdropping on journalists and news outlets; and continued efforts to compel journalists to reveal the sources of leaked information.”
One big point of contention is the level of protection for journalists’ sources; one of the main responsibilities of a journalist is to protect their sources no matter what consequences or repercussions may come their way. This is fairly easy to do when the story at hand is trivial and does not hold many stakes. The issue is when national security comes into play and there are questions about how much information is too much information or who might be harmed because of the spread of certain details. At times, these uncertainties have led American authorities to be more concerned about how much power journalists have. There have been cases where journalists have written controversial, critical and highly sensitive stories about the government and as a result, authorities have held journalists in contempt if they choose to not give up their sources. In essence, this make reporting on national security issues a crime. For example, James Risen is a journalist that wrote a story seven years ago in The New York Times that included details from a confidential source about “a botched operation in Iran that was intended to disrupt that country’s nuclear program” (The New York Times). After catching hold of this story, the Justice Department was trying to force Risen to testify at the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, a former C.I.A. officer charged with providing Risen with the details. In December of 2014, a United States court decided that Risen would not be forced to name his sources, indicating a victory for journalists around the world.
There is hope that the government would ultimately pass a shield law that would allow journalists to protect their sources at the federal level, but that has not yet been established.
The First Amendment
Unrest in Ukraine 