Malaysia has again emerged at the bottom end of Freedom House's Press Freedom Index among the 193 countries surveyed by a Washington-based think tank.

Ranked at number 154 in the world-wide survey - which is 19 rungs lower than Singapore - Malaysia lies at the bottom quarter of the nearly 40 Asia-Pacific countries surveyed by Freedom House.

Countries were classified as "free", "partly free", or "not free", according to the degree in which they permitted the "free flow of information" .

Seventy-one countries, including Malaysia and Singapore, were classified as not free, whereas 73 were free and 49 as partly free.

Among Asian countries, Malaysia only fared better than Brunei (161), Laos (179), Vietnam (179), Burma (190), China (173) and North Korea (193)- the country which was considered as being the worst country in terms of press freedom.

Neighbouring countries that ranked higher than Malaysia were Thailand (88), Indonesia (117) and the Philippines (75).

Bright spot

There is however a bright spot.

Freedom House said that the press freedom situation in Malaysia had improved marginally from the previous year and has assigned the country a numerical rating of 69 out of 100, which compares favourably to last year's rating of 71 out of 100.

This rating, which is a separate index from the country ranking, is based on a quantified analysis of the country's legal, political, and economic structures and environment surrounding governing the media industry.

Higher numerical rating indicates less press freedom and the more controls and limitations imposed on the media.

Among the positive signs noted by Freedom House in its Malaysia report was the increased "diversity of opinion" as provided in "the online editions of newspapers" as well as "other independent news websites" which are not bound by the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

Freedom House did not state if positive developments had in fact contributed to the improved score given to Malaysia.

Freedom House did not make available Malaysia's position for the previous year's (2002) press freedom index for a comparison to be made.

Two 'bad' incidences

Malaysia's low ranking reflects an earlier press freedom index released late last month by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which placed Malaysia 122 out of 167 countries.

According to the RSF report, the poor ranking was due to the "high level of self-censorship and control of editorial policies by media owners loyal to the government."

A similar assessment was made by Freedom House, which cited two incidences to indicate governmental control over Malaysian media, including the January 2003 raid on malaysiakini' s office, interrogation of its journalists, and confiscation of computers.

The other incident cited as a blot on press freedom in the country was the November sacking of New Straits Times editor Abdullah Ahmad, purportedly "after he wrote an article that called for reform in Saudi Arabia," according to Freedom House.