Another year, another dip in press freedom ranking

 

 It’s that time of the year again when Reporters Without Borders (RSF) releases their World Press Freedom Index.

Of course, the interest for us Malaysians would be the ranking of our country. Sometimes it goes up, and sometimes it goes down. In 2026, it looks like it’s gone down from 88th to 95th.

Our ranking fluctuates. In 2023, we were 73rd. Then we dropped quite drastically to 107th in 2024. We went up again to 88th in 2025, and now, well, we went down again. Let’s see if I can help put this into perspective for everyone reading this.

Number one on the list, which means they have the highest level of press freedom, is Norway. They have held that position for the last 10 years consecutively. The Netherlands and Estonia are number two and three, respectively. The United Kingdom is at 18, Australia is at 33, and the United States is at 64.

In Southeast Asia, Timor-Leste is at number 30, Thailand is at 92, Brunei is at 96, and Singapore is at 123.

So, Malaysia holds the third-highest ranking in this region. At the bottom of the list are countries like Eritrea (it’s a country in East Africa, if you were wondering) at 180, North Korea at 179, and China at 178.

That places Malaysia around the middle of the list. So, are we a glass half full or half empty? I guess you can see that any way you want. Some indicators show we are better than half the world, and also indicators that show we are worse than half the world.

If we look at it positively, we would probably be saying, “Alaa, boleh lah! Not too bad.” But then wouldn’t that make us a bit mediocre and average? Wouldn’t we as Malaysians want to be better and be the best in the world? Should we not look at what our weaknesses are and try to improve them?

We want to compete globally and be a leader on the international stage, right? Then, we need to look at the indicators and see what we can do about them.

Sliding down again

The World Press Freedom Index is quite a reputable index and is accepted by most of the world. It is considered the leading evaluation metric for press freedom. The largest and most reputable media organisations use it, so do international agencies and even academics and researchers.

I guess it is comparable to how different industries look at standards like ISO standards, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) certification for accountants, or the World Health Organization (WHO) for the medical world.

The index looks at five indicators - political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context, and safety of journalists.

As I mentioned, in 2024, Malaysia dropped from 73rd to 104th. Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil engaged with RSF to discuss. We improved in 2025, but we slid down again now.

It’s kind of like the state of football in Malaysia.

We’ve been at it for so long, and we know all of our weaknesses and even strengths, but for some reason, we keep making the same mistakes and never really addressing the problems that we have, which, may I remind you, is the same all the time throughout the years.

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And even in football, the ranking of our national team goes up and down all the time, too, and we hover in the bottom half of it all. We have the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), which has the responsibility for the development of the country’s football, and I guess they try.

Everything in line to progress

Back to the press, this time around, Malaysia has already formed the Malaysian Media Council. This happens to be the pride and joy of the administration, an indicator that they are progressive enough to encourage and help establish it.

So maybe now they can engage with our own to see what can be done to be better.

It is ironic to think that even with the establishment of the council, our ranking still dropped. But that’s okay. Let’s move forward and see what can be done now and in the future.

Maybe instead of waiting for the administration to come knocking, the council can reach out and engage the administration (if they haven’t yet).

To think about it, at the moment, we have everything in line to bring us further - an engaged administration that is vocally progressive and supportive of wanting to have a developed and mature press industry, and a united press industry in the form of the Malaysian Media Council.

All we need now is to make sure all works in tandem to achieve the common goal of being a country with a truly free, independent, and objective press.

So I think I’ve decided that I’m going to look at our ranking positively. I want to see it as a glass half full. I think that all this just means that we have the potential to rise and shine.

Let’s forget the irony. Malaysia boleh! - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.