Malaysia was ranked at the bottom fifth of a new worldwide press freedom index published by an international media watchdog, faring worse than several neighboring countries.

The index published by Reporters San Frontiers (RSF) last week included 139 countries and Malaysia secured the 110th spot.

Indonesia performed the best among Southeast Asian countries, coming in at 57, while Thailand was ranked 65, Cambodia 71 and the Philippines 89.

Countries which performed worse than Malaysia are Brunei, Vietnam, Laos and Burma. Singapore was not ranked.

According to an article in the RSF website, the index measured the amount of freedom that journalists and the media had in each country and the efforts made by governments to see that press freedom was respected.

The index intended to reflect the state of press freedom in the ranked countries between Sept 2001 and Oct 2002.

'Real knowledge'

Explaining how the index was composed, RSF said questionnaires were sent to people with "real knowledge" of the press freedom situation in one or more countries. This included local journalists, foreign correspondents, researchers, legal experts and specialists on a region.

The survey also studied the legal environment for the media such as punishments for press offences, whether there was state monopoly of the press, and the existence of a regulatory body.

Also considered was the behaviour of the state towards the public media and foreign press and whether there were threats to free flow of information on the Internet.

RSF said other countries were not ranked due to lack of reliable information.

Meanwhile, top performers were northern European countries, with Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands tied for first place.

Asia appeared to have come out worst with four of the worst offenders North Korea, which was ranked last, China, Burma and Turkmenistan.

There were also several surprises in the index such as the United States being ranked 17, two places below Costa Rica and Italy at 40.

The poor ranking of the US was due to the relatively high number of journalists arrested or imprisoned for refusing to reveal their sources in court.

Since the Sept 11 terror attacks, several journalists have also been arrested for crossing security lines at some official buildings.

On the other hand, Italy performed poorly because of increased efforts by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to monopolise state-run television stations.

Self-censorship rife

In its annual report on Malaysia published in April this year, RSF said free media in Malaysia was becoming increasingly rare with the takeover of Chinese-language dailies Nanyang Siang Pau and China Press by the MCA.

"Most Malaysian media are controlled by press groups close to the government. Criticism is rare and self-censorship is rife.

"Publications must be wary of the very restrictive Printing Presses and Publications Act, and journalists can face astronomical lawsuits for slander," said the report.

The report also stated that Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had done "everything in his power" to hinder independent journalists and to block the distribution of news magazines Asiaweek and Far Eastern Economic Review for several weeks in Feb 2001.

With regards to threats against journalists, RSF took into account the jailing of former malaysiakini columnist-cum-filmmaker Hishammudin Rais with five other reformasi activists in April 2001, for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government by militant means.

In addition, the police were said to have detained three journalists for 24 hours after arresting them at a peaceful demonstation outside the Kamunting detention centre in Perak.

This is not the first time that Malaysia has been ranked poorly for infringement on press freedom.

Last year, the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists voted Mahathir Mohamad into its '10 worst enemies of the press' list.

Other notaries named in the list included Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran, President Fidel Castro of Cuba, President Jiang Zemin of China, and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.