Madam, - Those who recently criticised this newspaper for publishing leaked information from the Mahon tribunal regarding the Taoiseach's personal finances in the early 1990s would do well to read the recently published 2006 figures of the "Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index" (The Irish Times, October 25th).
Ireland ranked joint first, together with Finland, Iceland and the Netherlands, on a list of 168 nations in a survey of relative press freedom based on a broad criteria of factors. I dare say The Irish Times had a large part to play in this result.
This surely shows just how fortunate we are to have a politically impartial fourth estate as a voice of the people, working for the people and reporting to the people, particularly on information pertaining to elected representatives, keeping them accountable to their electorate and, one hopes, keeping them on their toes ethically.
Given that the list includes the UK at joint 27th, the US at joint 53rd and my own personal adopted new home of Singapore at 146th, I continue to read The Irish Times as one of the world's finest newspapers of true impartial record for both national and international news. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL J BUCKLEY, Jervois Road, Singapore.