Abdullah’s legacy: From 104th to 132nd in press freedom

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Not surprisingly, Malaysia has dropped from 124th last year to 132nd place in 2008 in the RSF press freedom ranking.

Among ten South-East Asian nations, Malaysian remains in 5th place while Timor-Leste, which has the freest press in the region, showed the biggest improvement in the global rankings, shooting up 29 places to 65th. Thailand climbed 11 places to finish above Malaysia at 124th place. Singapore, Laos, Vietnam and Burma prop up the regional table with the least press freedom – unchanged from last year.

For all the talk of reforms under Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia’s press freedom ranking has actually dropped from 104th place in 2003, the year Abdullah took over, to 132nd place now. That’s a plunge of 28 places.

It wasn’t always sliding under Abdullah. His brightest year was in 2006, when Malaysia’s press freedom ranking actually climbed to a high of 92nd, making it the second freest in South-East Asia after Timor-Leste. But since then, we have sunk 40 places within the space of two years to reach 132nd! What happened, Abdullah? Did your administration have to crack down on mounting disenchantment when your promised reforms failed to take off fast enough?

Here is the RSF global ranking for 2008:

The ranking

Rank Country Note
1 Iceland 1,50
Luxembourg 1,50
Norway 1,50
4 Estonia 2,00
Finland 2,00
Ireland 2,00
7 Belgium 3,00
Latvia 3,00
New Zealand 3,00
Slovakia 3,00
Sweden 3,00
Switzerland 3,00
13 Canada 3,33
14 Austria 3,50
Denmark 3,50
16 Czech Republic 4,00
Lithuania 4,00
Netherlands 4,00
Portugal 4,00
20 Germany 4,50
21 Jamaica 4,88
22 Costa Rica 5,10
23 Hungary 5,50
Namibia 5,50
United Kingdom 5,50
26 Surinam 6,00
27 Trinidad and Tobago 6,13
28 Australia 6,25
29 Japan 6,50
30 Slovenia 7,33
31 Cyprus 7,50
Ghana 7,50
Greece 7,50
Mali 7,50
35 France 7,67
36 Bosnia and Herzegovina 8,00
Cape Verde 8,00
South Africa 8,00
Spain 8,00
Taiwan 8,00
United States of America 8,00
42 Macedonia 8,25
43 Uruguay 8,33
44 Italy 8,42
45 Croatia 8,50
46 Israel (Israeli territory) 8,83
47 Mauritius 9,00
Poland 9,00
Romania 9,00
South Korea 9,00
51 Hong-Kong 9,75
Liberia 9,75
53 Cyprus (North) 10,00
Montenegro 10,00
Togo 10,00
56 Chile 11,50
57 Panama 11,83
58 Kosovo 12,00
59 Bulgaria 12,50
Nicaragua 12,50
61 Kuwait 12,63
62 El Salvador 12,80
63 Burkina Faso 13,00
64 Serbia 13,50
65 Timor-Leste 13,75
66 Botswana 14,00
Lebanon 14,00
68 Argentina 14,08
69 United Arab Emirates 14,50
70 Benin 15,00
Malawi 15,00
Tanzania 15,00
73 Haiti 15,13
74 Bhutan 15,50
Ecuador 15,50
Qatar 15,50
Seychelles 15,50
Zambia 15,50
79 Albania 16,00
Fiji 16,00
81 Guinea-Bissau 16,33
82 Brazil 18,00
Dominican Republic 18,00
Tonga 18,00
85 Central African Republic 18,50
86 Senegal 19,00
87 Ukraine 19,25
88 Guyana 19,75
89 Comoros 20,00
90 Mozambique 20,50
Paraguay 20,50
92 Congo 20,75
93 Mongolia 20,83
94 Burundi 21,00
Madagascar 21,00
96 Bahrein 21,17
97 Kenya 21,25
98 Moldova 21,38
99 Guinea 21,50
Honduras 21,50
101 Guatemala 22,64
102 Armenia 22,75
Turkey 22,75
104 Maldives 23,25
105 Mauritania 23,88
106 Tajikistan 25,50
107 Uganda 26,00
108 Peru 26,25
109 Côte d’Ivoire 26,50
110 Gabon 26,75
111 Indonesia 27,00
Kyrgyzstan 27,00
113 Venezuela 27,33
114 Sierra Leone 27,75
115 Bolivia 28,20
116 Angola 29,50
Lesotho 29,50
118 India 30,00
119 United States of America (extra-territorial) 31,00
120 Georgia 31,25
121 Algeria 31,33
122 Morocco 32,25
123 Oman 32,67
124 Thailand 34,50
125 Kazakhstan 35,33
126 Cambodia 35,50
Colombia 35,50
128 Jordan 36,00
129 Cameroon 36,90
130 Niger 37,00
131 Nigeria 37,75
132 Malaysia 39,50
133 Chad 41,25
134 Djibouti 41,50
135 Sudan 42,00
136 Bangladesh 42,70
137 Gambia 42,75
138 Nepal 43,25
139 Philippines 45,00
140 Mexico 46,13
141 Russia 47,50
142 Ethiopia 47,75
143 Tunisia 48,10
144 Singapore 49,00
145 Rwanda 50,00
146 Egypt 50,25
147 Swaziland 50,50
148 Democratic Republic of Congo 51,25
149 Israel (extra-territorial) 51,50
150 Azerbaijan 53,63
151 Zimbabwe 54,00
152 Pakistan 54,88
153 Somalia 58,00
154 Belarus 58,33
155 Yemen 59,00
156 Afghanistan 59,25
Equatorial Guinea 59,25
158 Iraq 59,38
159 Syria 59,63
160 Libya 61,50
161 Saudi Arabia 61,75
162 Uzbekistan 62,70
163 Palestinian Territories 66,88
164 Laos 70,00
165 Sri Lanka 78,00
166 Iran 80,33
167 China 85,50
168 Vietnam 86,17
169 Cuba 88,33
170 Burma 94,38
171 Turkmenistan 95,50
172 North Korea 96,50
173 Eritrea 97,50
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Forest
Zahan

Apa nak jadi?..Sampai sekaang tak letak jawatan lagi.Mmg betul kata Pak Lah tu,sesiapa saja yg memimpin tidak akan dapat menyelesaikan masalah (UMNO),ada2 ada je masalah akan datang. I’m proud to be a teacher,not a politicians.Hamdalah.

Sivin Kit

Wow …with all due respect even Nigeria, Burundi and Kuwait is above us! Aiyo …

Sam Tam

Luckily PGCC did not get off the ground. If it had, Penang will get so heavy that it will sink further resulting in more floods. Maybe that’s why you get more floods nowadays – Penang has sunk down due to the weight of development on the island!! (sarcasm intended)

Sewel

We have in power today a very elitist one party strangle-hold of everything that is Malaysian. We need to gradually steadily but surely piece by piece pull this elitist group of Malaysians who are running our country with our natural resources. And where are they running Malaysia to? They are running it to the ground.Until this elitist party is not shredded, this country will be running alright, but running on empty and running into the ground. My fellow Malaysians we must let it be known to this elitist right wing racist party that they had their time in the sun… Read more »

caravanserai

Press freedom Singing the melody The songs hardly hit the right note It falls flat in the country Now the world ranking survey The country drops to 132 The perception is bad for us Noting press freedom can’t break into the top chart And we told him so He doesn’t know what hit him His warlords make him look so clumsy We know he is sleeping beauty The world to him is under the coconut shell He is the one who thinks he is smart Only the world ranking on press freedom It tells us the song crashed out in… Read more »

Andrew

An apt description of the msm: cold and dry.

imwatchinu

In a true democracy, the leaders would hang their heads in deep shame. In Bolehland, they still continue with their wayward way like nothing happened. It shows how thick-skinned our leaders are.

Patrick

Dude, you know they’re going to have billboards all over the country now saying that we’re better than Singapore and Laos, two of our South East Asian counterparts, and that we’re quite far away from North Korea and Eritrea.

Malaysia-update

LONDON – OIL prices fell below US$69 (S$103) a barrel on Wednesday as investors shrugged off a looming OPEC production cut after company forecasts suggested the US may be headed for a severe economic slowdown that would crimp demand for crude.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery dropped US$3.37 to US$68.81 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid-afternoon in Europe.

The November contract expired Tuesday and fell US$3.36 to settle at US$70.89. Last Thursday, that contract had declined as low as US$68.57 a barrel, the lowest since June 2007.

armouris

another new malaysia record for pak lah…..

info-kesihatan-anda.blogspot.com
our-health-info.blogspot.com

Samuel Goh Kim Eng

When any press is being pressed down
How can there be any real press freedom?
When control is in the hands of political clowns
We still have the classical example of modern fiefdom

(C) Samuel Goh Kim Eng – 221008
http://MotivationInMotion.blogspot.com
Wed. 22nd Oct. 2008.

wandererAUS

The latest result Freedom of Press completes Abdullah’s record breaking feat before he steps down as PM. He must have felt quite proud of himself!

lucia

ya i’m not surprised at all. just look at the 2008 memorandum for media freedom. very poor response. even seasoned or well known journalists did not support it. sad. 🙁

hoyohoyo

I can’t help but listening a Tun chuckles while reading the new ranking…