A notable achievement is that of the island nation of Taiwan, which was given a perfect score in a 2006 study called "A Global Survey of Media Independence". The government of Taiwan has been quick to point out their sucesses and improvements as well as mainland China's failures in the area ever since a journalist was sentenced to prison for sedition in late 2002. It is unclear whether this would have been permitted if the report was published on internet media. However, significant improvement has occured since then, especially in free speech and practice. News media, including internet media, enjoys more freedom in Taiwan than in all of Asia, including Japan. However, even as investigations into corruption are freely published, it is noted corrupt beaurecrats still exist within the Taiwanese government. The French group Reporters sans Frontieres cites Taiwan's status in media standing outranks the United States.

The US has had a sort of two-sided stance on the issue. While the Bush administration has encouraged openness and democracy abroad, it has instituted policies which are questionable to many of its citizens. In the United Nations, the Bush administration stopped a motion to put the domain name registry under UN control, which many have deemed a good move, as a centralized international authority might compromise the inherent openness of the internet. However, the Bush administration has come under fire at home for policies such as the "Patriot" Act, which gave the government unwarranted power to tap phone lines and other electronic devices, as well as better-known tactics such as demanding records from ISPs, email and/or chat site companies, and other service providers.

Liberia, fraught with political and civil war, has turned democratic in recent years. A press group owned by President Charles Taylor ceased to exist after Taylor was exiled after the war in 2003, where Taylor's forces clashed with rebels and most media dissapeared. In 2004, journalists were still being kidnapped and imprisoned, with widespread fear of physical reprisals. As of 2006, conditions were improving, but reporters were still being attacked politically and physically.

There is widespread use of the inernet in the land down under and generally is very good about freedom thereof. Its recent policy of requiring ISPs to censor certain materials, which is aimed at online pornography, has raised questions after it was amended to refuse openness of censored material. Opponents claim this could possibly lead to a slippery slope of censoring political opposition. Online privacy, though, is generally excellent, as it has always been, and a bill passed in 2004 prohibited interception of online messages without a court order.