The United States did not doing as good a job of upholding its First Amendment in 2013, according to a report published Wednesday.
Based on its pursuit and prosecution of whistleblowers and information leakers, the U.S. dropped 13 positions, landing at 46th — between Romania and Haiti — on the "World Press Freedom Index of 2014." Reporters Without Borders, a global advocacy group based in France, compiles the report each year based on an examination of factors (.pdf) such as violence, media independence and transparency during the previous calendar year.
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"The ranking of some countries has also been affected by a tendency to interpret national security needs in an overly broad and abusive manner to the detriment of the right to inform and be informed," the 2014 report reads.
The U.S. government was chastened in the report for its handling of two information leakers, Chelsea Manning, born Bradley Manning, and Edward Snowden. Manning, a former private in the U.S. Army, received a 35-year prison sentence in August for providing WikiLeaks with thousands of secret logs chronicling the U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to other documents.
Federal prosecutors have charged Snowden with espionage for leaking a trove of documents revealing the scope of the U.S. government's surveillance efforts. The former National Security Agency contractor fled the country weeks before the first news reports based on his leaked documents were published in June; he's currently living in Russia under asylum.
Reporters Without Boarders is not the only free press organization to take issue with the U.S. government in 2013. The Committee to Protect Journalists charged President Barack Obama's administration with impeding journalism in a special report released in October.
"Aggressive prosecution of leakers of classified information and broad electronic surveillance programs deter government sources from speaking to journalists," the CPJ report reads.
While the U.S. has taken a step back, according to the report, other countries saw even larger declines. The Central African Republic dropped 34 spots to 109th due to an armed conflict that has led to a surge of violence against journalists. In fact, the increasing violence against journalists around the world in 2013 led the United Nations to adopt a resolution condemning violence against members of the press.

Image: Reporters Without Borders
Occupying positions 177 to 179 at the bottom of the 2013 press freedom index are Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
"Despite occasional turbulence in the past year, these countries continue to be news and information black holes and living hells for the journalists who inhabit them," the report reads.
Finland ranked first on the press freedom index for the fourth consecutive year.
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