The 53rd Democracy

Driving to work this morning at 6:00 am, I was listening to Al Gore's great book Assault on Reason on my i-pod.

I was a bit surprised to learn that the United States of America, are now ranked 53rd in the World on the Free Press Index. A huge drop from the 17th place it held in 2002, and not exactly great for a country that claims loud and far that it is the first democracy in the World.

And for my fellow Canadians, we are not that great either in terms of free press. In 16th position, we are behind countries like the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia, Portugal and Slovenia...

For those interrested in the subject, I highly recommend Kristina Borjesson's fascinating book Into the Buzzsaw about 15 high profile american journalists who lost their jobs, were discredited and sometimes prosecuted when they investigated too far.

Let us not forget that Freedom of press is limited to those who own one.