US falls 27 places in Press Freedom Index, ranks 47th: Media assessment report

Washington, Jan 26(ANI): Paris based press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders has presented a new assessment report on global media freedom during 2011, and interestingly, the US has fallen 27 places to rank 47th in the latest Press Freedom Index.

The United States drop has been credited to the arrests of journalists during Occupy Wall Street protests and it puts them behind Comoros and Taiwan.

Reporters Without Borders also named 'crackdown' the word of 2011 in the assessment of global media freedom report.

The press freedom overseer said on Wednesday that the tide of uprisings in the Middle East, the Occupy movement in the West and nonstop protests in China gave journalists an unparalleled position in advancing democracy.

But governments in an attempt to annul dissent also regularly beleaguered journalists, The CBS news reports.

Despite some significant changes in the list Finland and Norway still topped the list just like they did for 2010.

Eritrea and North Korea were placed in the bottom. (ANI)