Ireland is among four countries rated first in an annual survey of press freedoms for the fourth consecutive year.
The fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index also found a "steady erosion of press freedom" in France, the United States and Japan.
World Press Freedom Index
Finland, Iceland and The Netherlands were top along with Ireland in the index covering 168 countries. The United Kingdom was 27th, while the United States was 53rd.
The index was created by asking media professionals and freedom of expression groups 50 questions relating to the treatment of journalists and the legal and regulatory framework in the surveyed states. It was compiled between September 1st, 2005, and September 1st, 2006.
Ireland's was positioned joint top despite plans to introduce a press regulation body that may be State-appointed and a new privacy bill due to come before the Oireachtas. The bill has been opposed by both World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors' Forum.
There were also claims that freedom of the press was compromised last December when Minister for Justice Michael McDowell used Dáil privilege to accuse journalist Frank Connolly of aiding Colombian terrorists and travelling on a false passport.
Mr Connolly, who was editor of the Centre for Public Inquiry, which was forced to close under pressure from the Government, was never prosecuted.
The Reporters Without Borders index was compiled before the editor of The Irish TimesGeraldine Kennedy and the newspaper's reporter Colm Keena were threatened with fines of up to €300,000 and jail terms of two years for the refusal to identify the source of a leak that caused deep embarrassment to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
The gap between European Union member states widened in 2005, the index found. The first 15 countries are all members of the EU, except for Norway (6th) and Switzerland (8th).
Poland ranked 58th - the lowest of all member states. The commentary accompanying the index said the Catholic/conservative coalition that came to power in November 2005 went to considerable lengths to control the media - including through the use of prison sentences and fines.
The report also noted that EU candidate state Romania rose in the index and attributed the improvement to its push for membership.
The furore over the publication of cartoons insulting to Muslims led to Denmark falling to down the index, and Germany also fell (23rd) because of a series of incidents, including the state intelligence service admitting it spied on the media for 10 years.
Silvio Berlusconi's demise as Italian prime minister led to a "slight" improvement in Italy's position (40th), "mainly due to repeated criticism of the-then prime minister's abuse of broadcasting time during the April 2006 parliamentary election campaign".
Although countries such as Mauritania and Haiti gained ground in the survey, former Soviet Union states were still highly repressive, and the worst offenders remained unchanged.
"Journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed. These situations are extremely serious and it is urgent that leaders of these countries accept criticism and stop routinely cracking down on the media so harshly," the survey said.
The organisation noted that less-developed countries are improving and in some cases moving above developed countries.
"This is good news and shows once again that, even though very poor, countries can be very observant of freedom of expression. Meanwhile the steady erosion of press freedom in the United States, France and Japan is extremely alarming," Reporters Without Borders said.
The US (53rd) fell nine places since last year, after being in 17th position in the first year of the Index, in 2002.
The survey said President Bush's administration was using its "war on terror" as a pretext to clamp down on investigative reporting. "The zeal of federal courts which, unlike those in 33 US states, refuse to recognise the media's right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism," it noted.
France (35th) also slipped further dropping 24 places in five years. The commentary blamed an increase in searches of media offices and journalists' homes and attacks on journalists covering an anti-privatisation rally.