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Nepal, on the other hand, started out the year very badly.

Before he was ousted in a democratic revolution, King Gyanendra had put the very existence of the independent press under threat. Several hundred journalists were arrested, beaten up, censored or threatened by rampant security forces. The press, first in line in the fight against the monarchy, progressively regained its rights from April onwards.

For the most part, India does well by the press, but in some states the situation can be dire.

Privately-owned television stations, which specialise in spectacular scoops, made some very serious ethical blunders in 2006. In August, journalists on local stations in Bihar state purchased petrol and matches for a desperate man so that he could commit suicide on camera.

Two Indian journalists were murdered in the course of doing their jobs.

In Ethiopia, what had looked like hopeful forward steps in 2005 came to a standstill, or even backwards moves, after the elections and following riots and unrest.

After a disastrous year, 2006 in Ethiopia was a static one. Some 20 journalists spent it in cells in Addis Ababa, part of a group of at least 76 members of the opposition, civil society and the private press prosecuted for “treason”, “conspiracy” to overthrow the government and “genocide”. Their trials before the federal high court opened on 2 May. The general disapproval, including from Ethiopia’s traditional allies, failed to get Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to budge. For him, there was no doubt that the opposition wanted to engineer a coup and to take revenge on ethnic Tigreans like himself.

The press situation in Russia has been abysmal and well documented with the murder of Anna Polotskaya topping headlines along with two other of her dead comrades. This brings the tally to 21 journalists killed in the country since Putin came to power.

Political instability in Ukraine hasn't helped that countries press, with greater press freedoms seen in 2005 pretty much wiped out by attacks on journalists and the failure to complete a trial of killers of a reporter.

One reporter had her house set ablaze, while others have been threatened or beaten.

And in Kazakhstan it's not looking good, either.

As well as imprisonment and beatings for Kazaks, a French journalist was murdered in his apartment in Almaty.