TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Taiwan's global press freedom is recognized as the sixth best performance by any Asian country, based on the newest report released by leading international watchdog Freedom House on Friday.

According to the report, Taiwan's global press freedom ranking moved up six notches from 2016 to 39th place.

Of the 199 countries and territories assessed for 2016, the Freedom of the Press 2017 report put Taiwan among 61 countries (31 percent)around the world with Partly Free media landscape, while 72 (36 percent) were rated Partly Free, and 66 (33 percent) were rated Not Free.

Taiwan scored 1 out of 7 for both political rights and civil liberties due to demonstrations of media independence and academic freedom in recent years, including in media coverage of the 2016 elections.

Meanwhile, among other notable Asian countries, Japan came in eighth on the Asian region scale, while South Korea, which was considered "partly free" by the Freedom House, ranked 15th

.China, on the other hand, was classified as not free and was ranked 39th in Asia, and 186th in the world.