Malaysia, China and Pakistan use Covid-19 as excuse to block press freedoms

Malaysia has witnessed a remarkable fall in press freedom while China is still firmly anchored among the worst countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Paris-based RSF

New Delhi, April 21: Malaysia has witnessed a remarkable fall in press freedom while China, which “continues to take Internet censorship, surveillance and propaganda to unprecedented levels”, is still firmly anchored among the worst countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) which provides information about the media freedom situation worldwide. The annual report published on Tuesday shows that journalism – “the main vaccine against disinformation” – is completely or partly blocked in 73 per cent of the 180 countries ranked by the organisation in the last 12 months.

It said that the Covid-19 pandemic has been used as grounds to block access to information with the journalists finding it increasingly hard to investigate and report sensitive stories, especially in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. According to the report, the country that fell the furthest in 2021 was Malaysia where the problems include a recent “anti-fake news” decree allowing the government to impose its own version of the truth.

Malaysia was ranked 101st in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index but the organisation said that many press freedom violations since Muhyiddin Yassin took over as Prime Minister in March 2020 have severely impacted its ranking in the new index released Tuesday. The RSF had earlier this month called on the Malaysian government to immediately rescind a so-called ‘anti-fake news’ emergency ordinance that effectively bans any information about the coronavirus pandemic or current state of emergency that is not to its liking. This ordinance constitutes a gross violation of press freedom and another step in the flouting of the democratic process, RSF says…

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