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Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Press freedom: How low can we go?

If you thought Malaysia’s press freedom ranking was already bad, think again.
Singapore has surpassed Malaysia in the latest RSF global ranking for 2010. Singapore! Now Singapore may have made great strides in terms of material progress but press freedom is not exactly its forte.

Singapore is now ranked 136th (133rd in 2009) – ahead of Malaysia’s 141st (131st in 2009). That about the same as our football Fifa ranking of 144th place!  What else do you expect when even a cartoonist can be arrested?
The ‘democratic’ nation of Brunei, at 142nd, is now breathing down our necks. 
Timor-Leste remains the freest in Asean at 93rd (but down from 72nd), followed by Indonesia at 117th and Cambodia at 128th.
Do you know, almost all Asean nations dropped in their ranking. Has the region taken a repressive turn for the worse?
The countries with the freest press are Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland in joint top spot.

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