(Embargoed: For publication only after 0330 hrs IST on Oct 24)

PARIS, Oct 24 (Reuters) Restrictions on civil liberties due to the ''war on terrorism'' have undermined media freedom in the United States and Russia over the past year, journalists' rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said.

RSF's 2006 Worldwide Press Freedom Index released today, a survey of censorship, intimidation and violence against journalists, found Finland, Iceland, Ireland and the Netherlands the most media-friendly. North Korea was last again.

Denmark fell from first last year to 19th after a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad sparked Muslim outrage and threats against reporters.

The United States fell nine places to 53rd in the survey of 168 countries, on a par with Botswana, Croatia and Tonga. It came 17th when the index was first compiled in 2002.

''Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of 'national security' to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his 'war on terrorism','' RSF said in a statement.

''The zeal of federal courts which ... refuse to recognise the media's right not to reveal its sources, even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism,'' RSF said.

It cited the examples of freelance journalist Josh Wolf, who was imprisoned for refusing to hand over video footage of a violent anti-capitalism protest in San Francisco, and of Sudanese Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, who it said was being held without charge at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

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