Global press freedom declined in 2007 for the sixth year running, with worrisome restrictions imposed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, the rights group Freedom House has stated in a report.
The Washington-based organization expressed concern about violence against journalists in a number of countries, including Russia, Mexico and the Philippines on Tuesday.
Iraq and Somalia remained the most dangerous countries for reporters, the annual survey said.
The report said there was some improvement in the Middle East and North Africa due to greater access to satellite television and the Internet as well as a growing number of journalists willing to challenge government limits.
But the survey struck a pessimistic tone given global trends.
"For every step forward in press freedom last year, there were two steps back," said Jennifer Windsor, executive director of Freedom House.
The survey, which examines print, broadcast and Internet freedom in 195 countries, said only 18 percent of the world's population live in countries with free media.
In Mexico, the report found an "extremely high level of drug-related violence against journalists as well as the continued atmosphere of impunity surrounding attacks on the media."
In Bolivia and Peru, reporters were the target of threats and physical assaults while in Colombia, there was a rise in attacks on journalists and economic uncertainty due to the continuing conflict there.
Russia suffered a "substantial" decline in press freedom in 2007 with "hundreds of journalists facing criminal or civil cases and at least two taken into temporary psychiatric detention after criticizing local authorities," Freedom House said.
"Russia remained one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the media," it said.
Last year two journalists' deaths were called suicides by Russian authorities. Ivan Saforonov with the business paper Kommersant fell out of the window of his Moscow apartment building in March just as he was to report on sensitive weapons sales to Iran and Syria, it said.
And Vyacheslav Ifanov, a television cameraman for a station in Siberia was declared to have died from a carbon monoxide overdose in April even though he had wounds on his body and had received death threats from military officials.
China saw an expansion of investigative journalism and commercial media but also tighter official control over the Internet and a general crackdown on dissent.
The region of Western Europe ranked highest for media freedom overall and states in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union suffered the biggest decline in press freedom.
The survey said the worst-rated countries for media freedom were Myanamar, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Eritrea -- a new addition to the "worst of the worst."
Freedom House was created in 1941 by Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of then president Franklin D. Roosevelt, among others and began publishing its annual survey in 1980.
