North Korea, Eritrea and Turkmenistan are the world's "black holes" for news, according to the fourth Annual World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders. The report covers 167 countries and brings out several interesting facts.

At the top of the Index are northern European countries Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands: the top 10 countries are all European.

Half the countries in the bottom 10 of the Index are in Asia. North Korea which is the worst offender continues to operate a repressive regime where secret police continued to hound those listening to foreign radio stations and journalists are reportedly still being held in concentration camps for professional errors or deviating from the official line. While some media privatisation has happened in China (159th), the government's propaganda department monitors the media, which were forbidden to mention dozens of sensitive subjects in the past year. If Hong Kong ranks 39th it is because of self- censorship by journalists so as not to annoy the Chinese authorities. While South Korea (34th) and Taiwan (51st) are improving remarkably, India which claims to be the world's largest democracy is at 106. Afghanistan ranks at 125, Saudi Arabia at 154, Iraq at 157 and Iran at 164.

While African and Latin American countries (Benin 25th, Namibia 25th, El Salvador 28th, Cape Verde 29th, Mauritius 34th, Mali 37th, Costa Rica 41st and Bolivia 45th) are improving, some Western democracies slipped down the Index. The United States (44th) fell more than 20 places, mainly because of the imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and legal moves undermining the privacy of journalistic sources. Canada (21st) also dropped several places due to decisions that weakened the privacy of sources and sometimes turned journalists into "court auxiliaries." France (30th) also slipped, largely because of searches of media offices, interrogations of journalists and introduction of new press offences.

Significantly, the Report points out that countries that have recently won their independence or have recovered it are capable of preserving democratic freedoms. Nine states that have had independence (or recovered it within the past 15 years) are among the top 60 countries - Slovenia (9th), Estonia (11th), Latvia (16th), Lithuania (21st), Namibia (25th), Bosnia-Herzegovina (33rd), Macedonia (43rd), Croatia (56th) and East Timor (58th).

The Index also addresses the excuses made by repressive regimes that economic development is a vital precondition for democracy and respect for human rights. The top of the Index is heavily dominated by rich countries, but several very poor ones (with a per capita GDP of less than $1,000 in 2003) are among the top 60, such as Benin (25th), Mali (37th), Bolivia (45th), Mozambique (49th), Mongolia (53rd), Niger (57th) and East Timor (58th).