Government officials in Azerbaijan are denying any intention to crack down on media freedom in the country. Presidential aides made the statement a day after authorities searched the home of Eynulla Fatullayev, the founder of two popular opposition newspapers.

A look at Ukraine's mass media provides interesting insight into the ongoing political standoff in Ukraine. Because the country finally has a relatively free media, the behavior of the various political actors is reasonably visible. Their actions toward media, in turn, reveal the divergence in political values which are at the heart of the crisis.

Russia is among the top three nations where press freedom has deteriorated the most over the last five years. A new report, compiled by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists to mark World Press Freedom Day today, found that almost a dozen journalists in Russia have been murdered since 2002.

The U.S.-based Freedom House organization says media freedom has stagnated in the Middle East and North Africa after several years of modest progress. In its annual report Wednesday, the advocacy group says the region continued in 2006 to show the lowest ratings for media freedom in the world.

Women in Islamic nations are increasingly being heard, seen and listened to, thanks in part to leading female voices determined to make a difference, despite challenges ranging from motherhood to threats on their lives. In New York, Mona Ghuneim spoke with some successful female media figures from the Middle East who are paving the way for young women today.

Russian authorities' brutal crackdown on the March of Dissent rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg earlier this month was just one element in a broader campaign of intimidation against Russia's political opposition and few remaining alternative mass media organizations.