conflict . The report cited `` increased travel restrictions on both Israeli and foreign reporters ; official attempts to influence media coverage of the conflict within Israel ; and greater self-censorship and biased reporting , particularly during the outbreak of open war in late December . '' Elsewhere in the Middle East , there are concerns about harassment of journalists and bloggers in Libya , Iran , Syria , Tunisia and Saudi Arabia . The drop in violence in war-torn Iraq helped journalists move around the country , and a new law in the Kurdish region gave journalists `` unprecedented freedoms . '' Hong Kong , which is part of China , also dropped in rankings from free to partly free , a reflection of `` the growing influence of Beijing over media and free expression in the territory . '' `` Of particular concern were the appointment of 10 owners of Hong Kong media outlets to a mainland Chinese political advisory body , increased restrictions on film releases in the period surrounding the Olympics , and reports that critics of Beijing encountered growing difficulty in gaining access to Hong Kong media platforms . '' The report cited deterioration of
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- `` Global declines in press freedom '' persisted last year , with setbacks highlighted in Israel , Italy , Taiwan , Hong Kong and elsewhere across the world , an annual survey said Friday . Media freedom campaigners don gags during a news conference in Hong Kong in April 2008 . Freedom House , a nongovernmental organization that supports democracy and freedom of the media , said in its annual press freedom survey that `` negative trends '' outweighed `` positive movements in every region , particularly in the former Soviet Union , the Middle East and North Africa . '' `` This marked the seventh straight year of overall deterioration . Improvements in a small number of countries -- including bright spots in parts of South Asia and Africa -- were overshadowed by a continued , relentless assault on independent news media by a wide range of actions , in both authoritarian states and countries with very open media environments . '' Israel -- once the only country to be consistently rated free by the group in the Middle East and North Africa -- was ranked as `` partly free '' because of the Gaza