One of our most important freedoms is the freedom of the press.  Some say that a free press is a indicator of a true democratic society.  Just how is the world doing with the free press thing?  “Global declines in press freedom” persisted last year, with setbacks highlighted in Israel, Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong and elsewhere across the world, an annual survey said Friday.

Freedom House, a nongovernmental organization that supports democracy and freedom of the media, said in its annual press freedom survey that “negative trends” outweighed “positive movements in every region, particularly in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and North Africa.”

“This marked the seventh straight year of overall deterioration. Improvements in a small number of countries — including bright spots in parts of South Asia and Africa — were overshadowed by a continued, relentless assault on independent news media by a wide range of actions, in both authoritarian states and countries with very open media environments.”

It seems that most of the slide is from countries that are tied closely with the US, so why cannot we use our influence to make it a freer press society?