China's ranking on the Press Freedom Index

The Press Freedom Index, an annual ranking of countries by Reporters Without Borders about their press freedom records, was published recently. Surprise surprise, China ranks one of the lowest on the list.

The country was the 8th worst country for press freedom, but actually showed a bit of an improvement from last year, when it was the 7th worst country for press freedom.

This time around, it beat out Laos, Cuba, Myanmar, Iran and the "infernal trio" of Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea. Eritrea is an especially bad case, with as many journalists detained as China even though it has a population that's 325 times less.

Even more interesting though, was Taiwan's slip from 36th most free press to 59th thanks to allegations that the government interfered with media and allowed protesters to attack reporters. Kuomingtang lawmakers lambasted the fall in placing, arguing that contrary to the report, Taiwanese media was "too free."