In light of the recent detainment of Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt, the Al Jazeera news network started a movement that aimed to free the journalists. They asked people to put a piece of tape over their mouths and hold a sign saying “#freeAJstaff” to support the journalists. I was so angry that the Egyptian government went so far as to imprison international journalists that I got the whole Roar newspaper staff to join the movement.

  I became proud of the United States and it’s protection of one of our First Amendment rights, the freedom of the press and speech, until I saw our ranking on the Press Freedom Index for the past few years.

 The Press Freedom Index is a ranking made by the association Reporters Without Borders, a French based organization that aims to preserve freedom of the press and protect journalists worldwide. In 2012, the United States was ranked 49 out of 180 due to the arrest of high profile journalists during the Occupy Wall Street protests, it went up to 32 in 2013 with the NSA hacking scandal topping the list, and we plummeted back down to 46 for 2014 due to a new campaign against Glenn Greenwald and other journalists who have reported on the leaked files by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

 The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime for any person to convey information intended to interfere with the U.S. armed forces prosecution of the war effort or to promote the success of the country’s enemies. It has been used by the government 4 times thus far- 1973, 1985, twice by George W. Bush in 2005, and a whooping six times by President Barack Obama, the most used by any administration ever.

 Those who criticize the Justice Department’s prosecution of whistleblowers write, “Freedom of information is too often sacrificed to an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national security needs, marking a disturbing retreat from democratic practices. Investigative journalism often suffers as a result.”

 What shocks me the most is that this country was built on freedom, it has ruthlessly fought for freedom, and it will stop at nothing until every single citizen is breathing freedom, yet the very freedom that we’ve been dying and killing for is not being sufficiently fed to us. This issue is not one hitting the headlines on leading mass media and it has not started any protests. It’s as if the general public doesn’t care that the information being fed to them is censored and controlled and the government has been imprisoning journalists for trying to create a more transparent America.

 We shout freedom at the top of our lungs when terrorists attack us, but why don’t we open our eyes and realize that our freedom is really being threatened by the very men and women we have voted into office. Is national security a good enough reason to infringe on our basic First Amendment rights?