Malaysia moved up two notches to 141 on the annual Freedom House press freedom ranking of 196 countries, but remains in the bottom 32 percent of countries which fall under “not free” category.

alaysia shares its placing with Algeria and Zambia.

The top 10 nations comprise of Finland, Iceland , Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, Andorra, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

On the opposite end, the bottom five countries are Eritrea (ranked 192), Libya (192), Burma (194), Turkmenistan (194) and North Korea (196).

azlan Regionally, there was little change to the rankings as Malaysia remains behind neighbours Phillippines (ranked 97), Indonesia (107), Thailand (124) and Cambodia (134).

Freedom House placed Phillippines, Indonesia and Thailand under the “partly free” category.

Freedom House is a international democratic freedoms advocacy group based in Washington, DC. The rankings were released today in conjunction with May 3 international Press Freedom Day.

Press freedom and good governance

Responding to the rankings, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said it reflects yet another “gloomy” press freedom day for Malaysia and called for it to be redressed to ensure government accountability.

“Without press freedom, accountability and transparency will cease to exist,” he said in a press statement today.

As a first step towards greater press freedom, Lim called for the repeal of laws such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act, Internal Security Act, the Official Secrets Act and the Sedition Act.

Such a move would immediately see Malaysia moving up the rankings and join the ranks of “partly free” countries, he added.

Taking it up a step further, Lim said Malaysia can join the “free” category should the federal government enact a Freedom of Information Act and prohibit media ownership by political parties or leaders.

He also said that the Penang government would be doing its bit by launching the “Speaker’s Corner”, modeled after Hyde Park in London, on May 5.