Annual Press Freedom Index

Canada ranked 18th on this year’s annual press freedom index from Reporters Without Borders. Along with Germany, it was one of only two G8 countries to make the list’s top 20.

Most of the countries deemed to have the best freedoms are in Europe, with Iceland at the top. The U.S. ranked 48 (immediately behind Nicaragua), and the press-rights group criticized the U.S. for the the detention of Al-Jazeera’s Sudanese cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, since 2002 at the military base of Guantanamo. France was ranked at 31, and Britain at 24.

The countries at the bottom of the list, deemed the least-free, are China, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.