Singapore rises 10 spots in press freedom ranking

SINGAPORE: The good news is that Singapore had gone up ten places in the press freedom index and is now ranked 129th out of 180 countries, a far cry from when it was in the bottom 20.

The not-so-good news is that RSF—Reporters sans frontières or Reporters Without Borders—has characterised freedom of the press in Singapore as “almost non-existent”.

RSF’s index was published on Wednesday (May 3), World Press Freedom Day.

In 2020, Singapore ranked 158th, going down seven spots from the previous year, largely due to POFMA, the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act passed in May 2019 and implemented the following October.

In 2021, the country dropped two places from 158th to 160th, taking its place in the bottom 20 countries in the World Press Freedom list.

However, in 2022, Singapore moved up to 139th in the world with a score of 44.23, based on political, economic, legislative, social, and security indicators.

Now, in 2023, Singapore is ranked 129th out of 180 countries and territories with a score of 47.88 — the country’s highest ranking in five years.

Norway tops this year’s list again with a score of 95.18. According to the index, its “legal framework safeguarding freedom of the press is robust,” and “the media market is vibrant, featuring a strong public service broadcaster and a diversified private sector with publishing companies guaranteeing extensive editorial independence”.

North Korea is at the other end of the scale, with a score of 91.61. RSF calls the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) “one of the world’s most authoritarian regimes”, which “tightly controls information and strictly prohibits independent journalism”.

Among the 11 countries in Southeast Asia, Singapore finds itself in the middle at number 5, as pointed out by Australian researcher Ross Tapsell in these tweets.

And the cellar-dwellers…
160 Laos (161)
173 Myanmar (176)
178 Vietnam (174)

full index here https://t.co/4rElepbGB8

— Ross Tapsell (@RossTapsell) May 3, 2023

See RSW’s full report here and Singapore’s country fact file here.

/TISG

Singapore in bottom 20 countries in 2021 World Press Freedom Index