WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Eight whistleblowers have been convicted so far, more than by every previous president combined, Free Press Senior Director of Strategy Tim Karr told the press conference.
"[Obama] has been worse for a free press than Richard Nixon and that’s a shameful reputation to have," Radack told a National Press Club press conference in Washington, DC.
The Obama administration has cracked down on government whistleblowers "to greater impact than Nixon could ever have imagined," Karr said.
Press freedom to cover the excesses of the US government no longer exists in the United States, Reporters Without Borders USA Director Delphine Halgand told the press conference.
"If anybody can be sentenced in the United States because he was merely talking to a journalist, where is press freedom in the country of the First Amendment?"
The United States has fallen to 49th place in an index of 180 nations compiled by Reporters Without Borders, Halgand pointed out.
According to the index, the United States has dropped 14 places in three years and now lies behind Burkina Faso, Niger and El Salvador for press freedom.
On Wednesday, Radack, Karr and Halgand participated in a march to the White House to deliver a petition with more than 100,000 signatures calling for the immediate release of convicted CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling.
