COMMENT | A mirage of change in Malaysia's press freedom

COMMENT | On May 3, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the 2024 World Press Freedom Index, revealing a startling decline for Malaysia, which plummeted 34 places from its previous ranking to 107 out of 180 countries globally.

One should not be shocked by this result considering Malaysia’s consistent below-average performance in the World Press Freedom Index for the past 22 years from 2002 to 2024. Its worst ranking was 147 in 2014 and 2015 during the Najib Abdul Razak administration.

The only occasions where Malaysia’s ranking within the 100...