Oh really? If you're lesbian or gay, just try exercising your freedom of speech in Jamaica or Ghana and see how far you get.

Oh, snap! To be fair, I'd like to arrest a few of our so-called "news" organizations myself.

this feels a bit overly dramatic. that or the USA is being judged on a sliding scale.

Has a White House correspondent ever asked the White House for a reaction to these rankings? I'd like to hear their answer to the US not being the greatest, freest country in the world, and how they can defend our position without shitting on the 45 countries that manage to be freer than us.

Finland seems to spank us at EVERYTHING.

I call bullshit on Haiti.

Yes, yes, the "guides" assigned to AP reporters by the Haitian elite are very friendly, and I'm sure the resorts where the reporters are sequestered are also very pleasant. That doesn't mean there's free speech or press for actual Haitians.

Bullshit! Three of the top 10 are barely countries (Luxembourg, Andorra, Liechtenstein). Hardly any news is ever even created in half the countries ranked above #46. Really, we're outpointed by Papua New Guinea?!? For fuck sake! And while Bradley Manning is a hero here on Slog, he did sign a goddamn OATH and therefore had VOLUNTARILY given up his 1st amendment rights to publish whatever the hell he wanted to while in uniform. Sheesh. We got our freedom of speech challenges, but this list is just plain ridiculous.

Yeah, this is kind of bullshit. Somehow I'm doubting few countries (even most that outranks us) would be much more tolerant of whistle-blowers.

@7 - While it's probably unfair to compare us on the same scale as tiny barely-a-countries like Andorra, there are plenty of tiny nonentities below us on the ladder, too. Fine, break up the ranking into subrankings by GDP or raw population or whatever. 46 is still a sad showing.

Well we (Sweden) are in the top ten .... which is odd. Hey you other Swedes who read the Stranger (I know there are quite a few of us for some odd reason) - concerning Soran Ismails shut off from SR since he talked about racism - I mean that should shove us down the scale shouldn't it?

That list makes me grimly curious about what's going on in Eritrea these days. A less free press than North Korea? I didn't imagine any country would come remotely close to that.

@11 - I think Eritrea is just a sharia law version of Ethiopia. That could be why.

France is above the US ? I wouldn't have bet on that.