Malaysia's worst-ever ranking in press freedom - dropping 32 spots to 124th place - has renewed calls by campaingers for a review of the country's slew of restrictive media laws.

In its annual press freedom index, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) cited countries including Malaysia for "serious, repeated violations of the free flow of online news and information".

The new ranking, which reports here said was the lowest since the index was established in 2002, puts the country in the bottom third of the 169 countries surveyed.

"Although dropping to 124th place is a big plunge, RSF's survey correctly reflects the concerns that most of us have about media freedom in this country," said Gayathry Venkiteswaran of the Centre for Independent Journalism.

"We urgently need to have a government parliamentary committee review these outdated press laws so that the media can perform its role in a democratic counrty," she told AFP .

RSF also identified the arrest of bloggers and the closure or difficulty in accessing news websites as an area of concern in media freedom worldwide.

"More and more governments have realised that the Internet can play a key role in the fight for democracy and they are establishing new methods of censoring it," it said.

Lawsuits against bloggers, website

Two prominent Malaysian bloggers, Ahirudin Attan and Jeff Ooi, are being sued for defamation by the government-linked New Straits Times Press group, a move criticised for attacking freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has also filed a defamation suit against independent news portal Malaysiakini for its reports on alleged kickbacks for the exports of timber to Japan.

"The harassment of web activists and cyber-dissidents ... indicates the growing intolerance," said Writers Alliance for Media Independence spokesman Wong Chin Huat.

Last week, Malaysiakini reported that Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin told top editors not to play up negative stories because Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's pledge to "hear the truth" did not apply to the media.

"Malaysia's worst placing in the RSF 2007 worldwide press freedom index joins a list of indicators that all is not right with Malaysia," opposition leader Lim Kit Siang said in a statement.

"Malaysia's (placing) would have been worse if the shocking development that the prime minister does not want to hear the truth from the media and the public had been taken fully into account."