Despite a slight drop in overall points gathered, Malaysia has managed to hang on to 147th position out of the 180 countries surveyed in the latest global Press Freedom Index.

 

The result comes amid an uptick of violations upon freedom of information around the world, said the the group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) when releasing the survey today.

 

“There was a drastic decline in freedom of information in 2014. Two-thirds of the 180 countries surveyed for the 2015 World Press Freedom Index performed less well than in the previous year.

 

“The annual global indicator, which measures the overall level of violations on freedom of information in 180 countries year by year, has risen to 3,719, an eight percent increase over 2014 and almost 10 percent compared with 2013.

 

“The decline affected all continents,” RSF said in its report which showed Malaysia’s score dropping by 0.56 points to 43.29 points in this year’s index, just ahead of Mexico’s 43.69 points (rank 148). A lower score indicates a greater degree of press freedom.

Ahead of Malaysia are Myanmar at 144, Burundi at 145 and Bangladesh at 146. Last year, Malaysia’s ranking fell from two places to the 147th position, which is the country’s worst ever performance.

 

Judged in six categories

The index scores can fall into one of five categories: 'Good situation', 'Satisfactory situation', 'Noticeable problems', 'Difficult situation' and 'Very serious problems'.

With a score between 35.01 to 55.00 points, Malaysia’s press freedom falls into the 'Difficult situation' category.

 

The scores are based on surveys with local journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists using a questionnaire comprising 87 questions, as well as RSF’s own monitoring.

 

Countries are judged based on the plurality of the opinions represented in the media, the extent that media organisations can function independently without outside influence, the environment and legal framework that the media operates in, the transparency of institutions, the infrastructure used to disseminate news and the extent of violence and harassment affecting media practitioners.

 

The assessment period for this year’s index was from Oct 15, 2013 to Oct 14, 2014. RSF did not provide any analysis for Malaysia’s ranking in its report.

 

However, RSF’s online archives of the assessment period contained reports such as Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s defamation suit against Malaysiakini over reader’s comments, the arrest of Malaysiakini reporter Susan Loone for alleged sedition and the suspension of weekly newspaper The Heat (now closed).

It also highlighted the Court of Appeal’s 2013 ruling that the seizure of the cartoonist Zunar ’s books Cartoon-o-phobia was legal and another court decision rejecting the government’s appeal against an earlier ruling that allows Malaysiakini to apply for a permit for a print edition.

Journalists being intimidated

 

The best performer in the Asean region was Brunei (121) though still placed in the 'Difficult situation' category. Timor-Leste, seeking to join Asean, performed even better with a rank of 103 falling within the 'Noticeable problems' category.

 

The best performer in Asia was Taiwan (51) while the global top three were the Nordic countries of Finland, Norway and Denmark in that order although their performance scores also dropped, noted RSF.

 

The worst performer in Asean was Vietnam at 175 while at the bottom of the global rankings was Eritrea (180).

 

Commenting on the global trends, RSF said the proliferation of armed conflicts in places such as Middle East and Ukraine have led to an information war in which media practitioners are either used for propaganda purposes or silenced.

 

In addition, non-state actors such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, Isis in the Middle East and Latin-American drug traffickers are intimidating journalists with threats of personal violence against them.

 

RSF also said some governments were tightening control on their media including using blasphemy laws as a tool for political repression. Authoritarian governments and democracies alike, meanwhile, are citing spurious 'national security' reasons as grounds for violating the freedom of information, it added.

 

RSF said it is also becoming difficult for reporters to cover public protests as they become targeted by participants and security forces alike.