The World Press Freedom Index 2006, published by the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), showed that the US had dropped 12 places to 53rd place, below countries such as Ghana, Mali and Bolivia. Yikes, slightly perturbing I am sure you will agree.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19388

I quote from the websight, 'Meanwhile the steady erosion of press freedom in the United States, France and Japan is extremely alarming.'

Once again the northern european, especially Scandinavian, countries come out top! They also come out top on things like gender equality (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4786160.stm), low povery, happiness http://www1.eur.nl/fsw/happiness/hap_nat/findingreports/RankReport2006-1.htm and the like. And it is not as if their economies are doing badly, Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are the three most competitive economies according to The Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007. In fact Finland topped the freedom of press and competitive economy list. Does anyone know if finnish is a hard language to learn?
Mmmmm just following links now, Finland was the first country to give women the vote and allow them to stand for parliment:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5036602.stm

Anyway, back to work.