Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2006

Reporters Without Borders is an international organisation that cares about press freedom. According to Reporters Without Borders, "More than a third of the world’s people live in countries where there is no press freedom. Reporters Without Borders works constantly to restore their right to be informed. Fourty-two media professionals lost their lives in 2003 for doing what they were paid to do — keeping us informed. Today, more than 130 journalists around the world are in prison simply for doing their job."
Right now, RWB released their annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index. This index shows which countries care about press freedom and which don't. The United States of America, for example, are on the 53rd rank. Not a very good result, as this means the US are behind countries like Slovenia, Bolivia, Japan or Mozambique. RWB states that "Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of “national security” to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his “war on terrorism.” The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism."
And what about Australia? Australia is on rank 35, together with France, Bulgaria and Mali. Not too bad, but hey... there's still enough room for improvements.