Stopped press: No surprises that Burma, China and North Korea come bottom in a new index of worldwide press freedom drawn up by Reporters Without Boarders (RWB). Or that Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands head the 139 countries in the index.

But, according to the RWB, Costa Rica (15) beats both the US (17) and the UK (21) while the 'political weakening' of the Palestinian Authority (82) gives it the democratic media edge over Israel (92).

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