KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia ranks 107th in the World Press Freedom Index 2024, a steep drop from 73rd place last year.
The country’s global score of 52.07 this year also places its press freedom in the “difficult” category, according to the rankings released today by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Out of 180 countries evaluated, Malaysia’s slide by 34 places from last year puts its press freedom almost back where it was in 2022, at 113rd place with 51.55 points.
A score of between 40 to 55 points places a country’s press freedom in the “difficult” category, while a score of 55 to 70 puts it in the “problematic” category.
Malaysia scored 62.83 points for 2023.
RSF’s rankings are based on five indicators namely, political, economic, legislative, social, and security.
In terms of security, while no abuses against media personnel such as murder and imprisonment were recorded for Malaysian journalists, the country scored lower in the other indicators.
For example, for security, Malaysia scored highly with 83.72 points this year, and 85.46 last year.
However, for the political context indicator, it scored 44.35 this year, and 55.31 last year.
The political context indicator includes the degree of support and respect for media autonomy in the face of political pressure, and the degree of support for the media to perform its role of holding politicians and the government accountable to public interests.
According to RSF, the Malaysian government applied political pressure to prevent the media from covering controversial subjects or from attacking public figures.
“The authorities are after investigative reporters, and the monarchy is an extremely sensitive subject, as are discussions on race and religion.
“Any form of commentary or reporting deemed critical of the monarchy can result in prosecution, leading to widespread self-censorship on the matter,” it said.
From a legal aspect, it said prison terms under the Sedition Act 1948 and Official Secrets Act 1972 affected Malaysia’s scores under the legal framework indicator, for which the country scored 34.04 this year and 44.58 last year.
Regionally, Malaysia is second among Asean countries, behind Thailand (87th place), while remaining ahead of Indonesia (111), Brunei (117), Singapore (126), the Philippines (134), Cambodia (151), Laos (153), Myanmar (171) and Vietnam (174).
The top spots in the world press freedom rankings were held by Norway, Denmark and Sweden. – May 3, 2024