“Sarah Huckabee Sanders claims that press freedom in the United States is in good standing and that her presence at the briefing proves it,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “Spokespersons exist in all regimes, regardless of the level of freedom. President Trump’s spokesperson is in denial when she describes the United States’ ranking in the Index as ridiculous and rejects his own responsibility. In addition to Trump’s incessant harassment of reporters and media in his first year in office, there was also a well-documented increase in arrests, violent attacks, and online harassment of journalists at the local level. It’s hard to believe how anyone could look at this data and find a decline in press freedom in this country ridiculous.”
Read more about RSF’s analysis of the United States’ decline in press freedom.