A new report by Freedom House highlights poor performance in South Asian media. The report states that for the first time in eight years, global media freedom did not experience an overall decline. However, it says that "due to downgrades in some previously free countries, the percentage of the world's population living in societies with a fully free press has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade." The report states that Burma made significant advances due to a broad political opening, and numerical improvements in press freedom were seen in Nepal as well. But these were balanced by "declines" in press freedom in India and Pakistan.