President Chen Shui-bian said on June 29 that Taiwan ranks 35th in the world for its freedom of the press and the best, along with Japan, in Asia.
The president was citing a report made by the US-based Freedom House in 2006 when he met with a group of international journalists invited by Taiwan's Central News Agency to celebrate the agency's 10th anniversary since its reinstitution.
The Freedom House rated Taiwan 49th in 2004 in freedom of the press and 44th in 2005, the president said to his guests.
According to the same report, China ranks 177th among the 190 countries rated . "Freedom of the press does not exist in China," the president added.
He also told his guests that he had always defended Taiwan's freedom of the press since he embarked on his political career. "Taiwan is a newly emerging democratic country which just transformed from authoritarian rule 20 years ago, and since I assumed presidency in 2000 I have endeavored to defend the full exercise of freedom of the press and of expression," he told his guests.
These international journalists included Neeraj Bajpai, Kim Chang-Hoe, Hector Botero, Roxanne Sengelmann, Eric Wishart, Nobuhisa Matsuzaki, Hyeonza Hong, Bruce Grant, Bill Foreman, Benjamin Lim, Hsin-hsing Yang, James Peng, Mori Yasuhiro, and Ohtsuki Katsumi.