Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)
October 20, 2003:

The Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) issued its second ranking of
press freedom in countries around the world today and Burma is ranked 164th
position out of 166 countries listed.

Burma ranked third from last ahead of Cuba, North Korea and ranked below
Bhutan and China.

It is the same status Burma enjoys with last year's RSF ranking found the
country to be third position from last ahead of Cuba and North Korea as regards to press freedom.

The findings point out that the most catastrophic situation is to be found in Asia, with eight countries in the bottom ten: North Korea, Burma, Laos, China, Iran, Vietnam, Turkmenistan and Bhutan.

"Independent news media are either non-existent in these countries, or are
constantly repressed by the authorities. Journalists there work in extremely
difficult conditions, with no freedom and no security. A number of them are
imprisoned in Burma, China and Iran", the RSF said.

Cuba, second from last in the ranking, is the world's biggest prison for journalists.

The ranking also distinguishes behaviour at home and abroad in the cases of
the United States and Israel. The United States is ranked 31st and Israel as
44th position as regards respect for freedom of expression on their own
territory, but they fall to the 135th and 146th positions as regards behaviour beyond their borders.

India ranks 128th in world ranking of press freedom.

The RSF ranking measures the state of press freedom in the world based on
surveys of journalists, researchers, jurists, regional specialists and the
researchers about a range of press freedom violations, such as murders of journalists, state censorship, free flow of information, etc.