Malaysia’s press freedom ranking drops at 141

Malaysia is at no. 141, dropping 10 notch out of last years ranking of 131, which is bad for the perception of press freedom in the eyes of the world. Even Zimbabwe is better than us at no. 123.

Read also the RSF's websites report on Malaysia where Cartoonist Zunar's alleged seditious cartoon publications were the bone of contention with regards to Malaysia's press freedom report.  Also read Cartoonist arrested on suspicion of sedition and Censored cartoonist Zunar tells his story on how the Home Affairs Ministry banned his cartoon books and cartoon magazines, namely “1Funny Malaysia,” “Perak Darul Kartun (Perak the Land of Cartoon)” and “Isu Dalam Kartun (Issues in Cartoon).

Below is Malaysia Today's analysis on the 2010 World Press Freedom Index released by RSF (Reporters Sans Frontieres), a press watchdog group based in Paris.

Malaysia’s press freedom ranking drops to a 9 year low at 141 out of 178 countries

by Zaleh

Malaysia has scored another low ranking and this time it is in terms of press freedom. In the 2010 World Press Freedom Index, Malaysia has dropped 10 places. Last year Malaysia was ranked 131 in the ranking, one notch up from 132 the year before but this year saw Malaysia dropping to 141, the lowest in 9 years. The index involved a total of 178 countries.

The ranking was released by RSF (Reporters Without Borders) a press watchdog group based in Paris where Singapore is now at 136, the first time it has outranked us. Malaysia’s position however is higher than Thailand and the Philippines who are at the 153 and 156 positions respectively. The 2 countries are regarded to have better press freedom though but political violence was the contributing factor to their low ranking numbers. According to RSF, "Thailand - where two journalists were killed and some 15 wounded while covering the army crackdown on the 'red shirts' movement in Bangkok – lost 23 places. The Philippines lost 34 places following the massacre of over 30 reporters by partisans of one of Mindanao island's governors.”

At the top of the index are Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland who all shared the number one spot while perhaps the loudest advocate of press liberty, the United States in on 20. North Korea and Eritrea are the last 2 countries. "Also in South-East Asia, Indonesia (117) cannot seem to pass under the symbolic bar separating the top 100 countries from the rest, despite remarkable media growth. Two journalists were killed there and several others received death threats, mainly for their reports on the environment. In short, repression has not diminished in Asean countries, despite the recent adoption of a human rights charter."