This study compares how the English-language newspapers in countries---China, Thailand and the US---covered two genetic modification cases. In China and the US, the topic analyzed was the genetic engineering of rice. In Thailand and the US, it was the genetic alteration of papaya.;Using the social amplification of risk framework, the hoopla effect, and framing, the intensity, the pattern and tone of this coverage, the sources cited, and the frames employed were determined. This was done through a content analysis of news articles.;The results showed that across nations, the scientific and economic frames were the most frequently used, except in Thailand where the political frame was the second most dominant. The findings suggest that the relationship between a nation's level of press freedom and the use of frames is not linear. A country's policy toward biotechnology and frame use may also have a curvilinear relationship.