Reporters Without Borders is publishing for the first time a worldwide index of countries according to their respect for press freedom. It also shows that such freedom is under threat everywhere, with the 20 bottom-ranked countries drawn from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The situation is especially bad in Asia, which contains the five worst offenders - North Korea, China, Burma, Turkmenistan and Bhutan.
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/freedom_of_press.htm
Yeah, it is interesting, but there aren't too many surprises... of course there's the dozen or so countries that have unexpected results but for the most part it is the countries with less political and cultural problems that have less problem with the press...
Israel's position surprised me though, especially the fact that we were below the PA... I know we got worse, but I didn't think it was that bad... though I did see that the main concern was the treatment of army towards press in the West Bank, which I think needs to be taken in correct proportions... army is, after all, not police. They also might be offended by the fact that Israel sometimes doesn't let journalists into safety zones for security reasons. But basically, I don't think that the army or the Israeli government are really afraid of journalists and therefore oppress them - more like they don't understand the need for them...