There was a Russian general sometime ago that claimed that the Russian press was now more open and more honest than the US press. Some dismissed this as total nonsense, but others who looked more seriously at this claim, found a great deal of truth in it, and simply reading the Online edition of Pravda, does seem to yield more information about the state of the world, than reading US media or Australia media (or is it the same).

It does appear that Russia is becoming quite open and forthright about the state of it’s society, with reports showing high rates of poverty, low rates of child birth, high rates of family breakdown etc http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/11/25/39935.html

Other countries are actually quite similar, but not so open about it