Freedom House's annual press freedom survey, now covering 194 countries and territories, has tracked trends in media freedom worldwide since 1980. Featuring a new overview of the state of press freedom from senior researcher and editor Karin Deutsch Karlekar, Freedom of the Press 2006 provides comparative rankings and examines the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influence reporting, and economic factors that affect access to information. Also new to this edition is a timely essay on the Muhammad cartoon controversy and the challenges it has posed to freedom of expression principles. This survey is the most authoritative assessment of media freedom around the world. Its findings are widely utilized by policymakers, scholars, press freedom advocates, journalists, and international institutions.