Malaysia's ranking on the World Press Freedom Index has gone up a notch to 146 out of 180 countries.
This is despite Malaysia's score on the index worsening by 3.28 points, from 43.29 to 46.57 points.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Asia-Pacific chief Benjamin Ismail said as such, Putrajaya should not congratulate itself for the improved ranking as Malaysia's press freedom score had fallen for a number of reasons.
Among them are the blocking of news sites such as The Malaysian Insider , Sarawak Report and Asia Sentinel , intimidation and lawsuits against media such as Malaysiakini , and the arrest and deportation of the two Australian Broadcasting Company journalists last month.
"Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak seems to lead a personal war against what he believes are overly critical media against him and his government," Benjamin told Malaysiakini .
At a glance, Malaysia's improved ranking appears to be in part because Brunei suffered a sharp fall from number 122 to 155 this year.
However, the climb up the ranks, despite worse scores, is a trend that occurs for many countries.
Regionally, the highest-ranking Southeast Asian country is Cambodia, for which the score improved by 0.28 points to 40.7, pushing it up 11 spots to 128.
This is followed by Indonesia, which jumped up eight ranks to 130, despite its freedom index score dropping by 0.97 points.
Thailand fell two places to 136, the Philippines climbed three spots to 138, Myanmar went up a step to 143, Singapore fell a step down to 154, Lao is down two spots to 173 and Vietnam maintained its ranking at 175.
"After improving last year, Myanmar (at 143rd) and Philippines (138th) saw their scores decline in the 2016 Index, revealing the limits of the reforms and measures taken to improve media freedom and safety.
"Singapore (154th) suffered the region’s second biggest decline, after the Sultanate of Brunei (155th, down 34), where the progressive introduction of the syariah and blasphemy charges fuelled self-censorship," the RSF states.
Globally, Bangladesh, which was just a step up from Malaysia last year, is now up two ranks to 144.
The top three countries are Finland, the Netherlands and Norway, with Costa Rica jumping 10 spots to become the sixth best country and top non-European country for free press.
The five worst countries for press freedom, starting from the bottom, are Eritea, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Syria and China, all of which retained their rankings from last year.
