Paris-based press grouping Reporters sans Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders) today denied that it had a hidden agenda in placing Malaysia low o­n its Press Freedom Index for last year.

In an e-mail communique with malaysiakini , RSF Asia-Pacific representative Vincent Brossel said he was surprised at the attacks from Malaysia over the RSF index issued last October.

He was referring to media reports yesterday in which Deputy Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin questioned Malaysia's ranking at 110 out of 139 countries, much lower than Indonesia (57), Thailand (65) and the Philippines (65).

Eye o­n Singapore

Zainuddin had said that RSF had an hidden agenda and was being used as a tool by certain countries to discredit Malaysia. He also questioned RSF's credibility and asked why the survey had not included Singapore, a country known for its tough anti-press laws.

The findings o­n Malaysia, Brossel said, were based o­n a 50-question survey conducted by RSF.

"We don't have such type of political motivation. We are well known for monitoring press freedom abuses in all the countries, and we (also) have no problems in criticising the US and the western democracies," he said.

Brossel said that he was surprised by Zainuddin's outburst, adding that Singapore was not included in the index due to some difficulties in collating some questionnaires o­n the condition of media there.

He said that many people in Singapore had also refused to participate in the survey.

"We did not manage to get questionnaires filed by people aware of Singapore's freedom of expression situation...we could not find enough experts o­n time as well," he said.

He, however, stressed that Singapore would be included in the next index, saying that the press situation there was not being ignored by RSF.

For example, he said that o­n May 3, RSF included Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in its list of press freedom predators.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Cuba President Fidel Castro and China's new president Hu Jintao are among those included.

Subtle control

In its introduction to the 2003 annual report, RSF gave a brief explanation as to why Malaysia is seen to have fared much worse that Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. It said that the three countries continue to enjoy real press freedom.

Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei o­n the other hand, have kept up constant pressure that has prevented an independent press from emerging.

"Repressive laws such as the Internal Security Act in Malaysia or a policy of systematic censorship enabled the regimes led by Mahathir Mohamad and Goh Chok Tong to maintain 'Asian values' and dispel any notion of o­ne party replacing another in power by means of elections," it said.

RSF also said the Malaysian government has continued to practise a subtle mix of censorship, harassment and imprisonment to keep a grip o­n the news, and that criticism was rare and self-censorship prevailed.

It added that most of the local media organisations were controlled by press groups linked to the ruling (coalition led by) Umno.