Final Score: United States 5, Burma 5

Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 12.15.05 | 1:51 PM ET

Five journalists, that is. The Committee to Protect Journalists has issued a report on nations detaining correspondents. The news isn’t pretty: The United States and Burma (perhaps the most Orwellian nation on the planet) tied for sixth place for most held, with each nation detaining five journalists. None of the five journalists being held by the U.S. in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been charged with a crime. China is holding 32 reporters, more than any other nation. The New York Times has the gory details.

Reports the newspaper:

The United States has made the list before because other journalists have been in jail on Dec. 1 for refusing to reveal their sources. But Ann Cooper, executive director of the committee, said this was the first year in which the United States had been on the list for cases in which journalists had been held without specific charges being filed against them.

“This is a country where we are trying to foster democracy,” Ms. Cooper said, referring to Iraq. “Detaining people in this fashion and holding them for weeks and months with no charges against them - that is not a lesson in democracy.”