Click here if you have trouble viewing the map (Reporters Without Borders)

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS have released this map today to show where countries rank in terms of press freedom across the world.

Ireland fares well, in the rankings, coming 16th in the world with countries like Finland, the Netherlands and Norway at the very top.

The countries on the map marked in black – indicating a “very serious situation” – include China, Somalia, the Syrian Arab Republic and Eritrea.

Today, Reporters Without Borders said the index “spotlights the negative impact of conflicts on freedom of information and its protagonists”.

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They also said the ranking of some countries has also been affected by a “tendency to interpret national security needs in an overly broad and abusive manner to the detriment of the right to inform and be informed”.

This trend constitutes a growing threat worldwide and is even endangering freedom of information in countries regarded as democracies.

The three countries at the bottom of the index – Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea – were described as “news and information black holes and living hells for the journalists who inhabit them”.

The organisation also said countries that pride themselves on being democracies and respecting the rule of law “have not set an example”, claiming that the freedom of information is too often sacrificed “to an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national security needs”.