(Apr 30): Malaysia has been ranked at 142nd spot among 199 countries on press freedom by US-based non-governmental organisation Freedom House.

In its Press Freedom Report 2014, Malaysia achieved a press freedom score of 65 and is categorised as "not free", sharing the same spot with Pakistan and Turkey.

According to Freedom House, each country or territory is given the press freedom score from 0 (best) to 100 (worst) on the basis of 23 methodology questions which are divided into three sub categories: economic environment, political environment and legal environment.

The total scores determine the status designation of free, partly free or not free.

A total score of 0-30 means press freedom status of "free", 31-60 is categorised as "partly free", and 61-100 is "not free".

Neighbouring Indonesia scored better at 49, which puts it on the 97th spot, sharing the same rank as Albania, Comoros, Kosovo, Malawi and Panama.

However, Singapore fared badly, registering a score of 67, which puts the island republic on the 148th spot and categorised as "not free".

The top nations which scored the highest in press freedom are the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, as well as European countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Not surprisingly, North Korea came in last at 199th spot, with a score of 97.

Freedom House noted that global press freedom declined in 2014 to its lowest point in more than 10 years.

It said the steepest decline relates to two factors - the passage and use of restrictive laws against the press, often on national security grounds, and the ability of local and foreign journalists to physically access and report freely.

Malaysia recently saw a string of arrests under the Sedition Act in 2014.

This came despite Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's promise to repeal the law.

Last month, two senior executives and three editors from The Edge and The Malaysian Insider were arrested under the Sedition Act over a report published on March 25, which said the Conference of Rulers had rejected a proposal to amend a federal law that would pave the way for hudud to be enforced in Kelantan. – The Malaysian Insider