Brazil, Chile and the United States tumbled dramatically in the 2011-2012 Press Freedom Index that Reporters Without Borders released Wednesday, Jan. 25. Brazil dropped 41 places to no. 99, Chile plummeted 47 places to no. 80, and the United States fell 27 spots to no. 47.
Brazil was taken down in part because of the killings of at least three journalists and bloggers, Reporters Without Borders said, and the arrests of journalists covering student protests in Chile and the Occupy protests in the United States contributed to those countries' falls.
"Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011," the press freedom index report said. "Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom."
Canada (no. 10), Jamaica (16), and Costa Rica (19) topped the list of countries throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. Guatemala (97th), Panama (113th), Paraguay (80th), and Trinidad and Tobago (50th) all dropped at least 20 places. El Salvador (37th), Nicaragua (72nd), Surinam (22nd), and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (25th) all moved up at least 10 places on the index.
Colombia (143rd), Mexico (149th), Cuba (167th), and Honduras (135th) rounded out the bottom of the press freedom index for Latin American countries.
