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Censorship: one area in which North Korea leads the world

Foreign correspondents have a challenging job to do, and it isn't made easier by authoritarian governments. Nor, for that matter, is the work of the national news media in such countries. Example: Communist North Korea, which has been ranked the "most censored" nation by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Its report last week, which coincided with World Press Freedom Day, notes that most of the countries cited are ruled by one man, who manipulates the news media as North Korea's Kim Jong Il did in barring journalists from the scene after a munitions train exploded in 2004, killing or injuring thousands of people. Only the state news agency reported the incident, and it said Kim is so beloved that people in the vicinity raced into burning buildings to save his portraits before worrying about their own families. The 10 most-censored countries, according to the CPJ:

1. North Korea
2. Burma (Myanmar)
3. Turkmenistan
4. Equatorial Guinea
5. Libya
6. Eritrea
7. Cuba
8. Uzbekistan
9. Syria
10. Belarus