The myth is often described approximately as - "Arab countries do not have a free press; only Israel supports press freedom. Arabic populations can't read about the real world in their press."

Clearly, the limits of Israeli press freedom are worth observing in the context of Israel's war against the Palestinians. There remain pressing issues of press freedom in Arabic countries, but those countries are not monolithic and some do continue to report more freely than Israel. It should not be surprising that Arabic populations have access to a vast amount of information affecting their daily lives that are not usually presented to Western audiences.

The Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders has released a league table of how free the press is in various countries around the world (as of October 2002).

The Palestine National Authority comes in at number 82. Israel is found to respect press freedom less than the PA, coming in at 92. So even under the brutality of the occupation, the PA is more respectful of basic press freedoms than is the occupier.

See the full index here.

Besides the PA, five other Arab League members are ranked higher than Israel (Lebanon, Comoros, Bahrain, Kuwait and Morocco).

Also, the following paragraph from the report is useful to remember:

"In the West Bank and Gaza, Reporters Without Borders has recorded a large number of violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which guarantees press freedom and which Israel has signed. Since the start of the Israeli army's incursions into Palestinian towns and cities in March 2002, very many journalists have been roughed up, threatened, arrested, banned from moving around, targeted by gunfire, wounded or injured, had their press cards withdrawn or been deported."

If you're looking for it on the table, the UK is equal with Benin and Uruguay at number 21, behind Ecuador, Greece and Costa Rica. A BBC article on the table (which, oddly enough, doesn't mention the UK's low ranking - reinforcing the UK's position on the table maybe) can be viewed here.