The essential nature of political structures of developing nations appears to generate an opposition to criticism. Since most of the developing nations see no alternative but to regard freedom of the press as an antithesis to industrial development, many such nations suppress press freedom. The relationship between developmental efforts and curtailment of press freedom can be observed in the degree of subsystem autonomy rather than the economic indices. A taxonomy of press freedom developed according to the political systems is referred to as "Mobilized Modern Systems with High Differentiation and Secularization" and "Premobilized Modern Systems with Limited Differentiation and Secularization." Developing nations fall under the second category and all other nations under the first. In analyzing subsystem autonomy, data reflect that if societal differentiation is high, the press is most likely to be free and vice versa. (DS)