The government had wanted to compel Risen to testify, on threat of jailing for contempt if he refused to name his confidential source. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

The gruesome image of a journalist dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit kneeling helplessly before a black-clad captor has become the unfortunate embodiment of the gravest threat facing journalists today.

In its 2015 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) writes, “media freedom is in retreat on all five continents,” ranking Eritrea, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Syria and China at the bottom of its 180 country index.

Finland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden were given the highest ratings while the United States was ranked 49th, three spots lower than 2014 and a far cry from where it was at 20th in 2009, when President Barack Obama took office.

Press freedom also faces greater threats as new laws, government surveillance and increasingly sophisticated technology have become ubiquitous.

After the Obama administration abandoned a seven-year attempt to force New York Times reporter James Risen to reveal sources related to a CIA whistleblowing case, Risen lashed out at the administration on Twitter, calling it “the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation.”

The White House did not respond to multiple requests to comment for this story

A joint Human Rights Watch-ACLU 2014 report, With Liberty to Monitor All, details how government surveillance programs and data collection of data are driving a wedge between reporters and their sources.

The report quotes one journalist who said, “I don’t want the government to force me to act like a spy. I’m not a spy; I’m a journalist.”

The result of increased surveillance on journalists covering certain beats —intelligence, terrorism, military, national security and Department of Justice issues — means slower, less fruitful, less robust sources, the report said.