Book excerpt: The annual Freedom of the Press, which tracks trends in media freedom worldwide, appears for the first time as an expanded book. Covering 192 countries, the survey provides numerical ratings of the level of press freedom in each country. The Freedom House survey team also assesses the legal environment for the media, political pressures that influence reporting, and economic factors that affect access to information. Essays include a 25-year retrospective of press freedom and a timely analysis of the upcoming World Summits on the Information Society (2003 and 2005). Academics in several disciplines, governments, the news media, and the World Bank employ Freedom of the Press as a standard reference.