The veteran DAP adviser said that the freeze on the weekly paper showed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had broken his pledge to free the press from the “authoritarian” restrictions implemented by the previous Mahathir administration. “Najib should intervene immediately to restore the publication licence of The Heat before this incident becomes the tipping point to plunge Malaysia's 2014 Press Freedom Index to the lowest point in the nation's history, even below that of Myanmar,” said Lim in a statement today. Malaysia fell 23 rungs to rank a historic low of 145th out of 179 countries in the 2013 World Press Freedom Index released earlier this year by Reporters Without Borders, an international press freedom non-profit organisation, which cited increasingly limited access to information in the country. “Noteworthy was Myanmar which was ranked 151, six spots behind Malaysia, after jumping up 18 places – the second year it had improved its rankings,” said Lim today. The Home Ministry denied last Saturday that The Heat weekly was suspended over a report on Najib's “big spending” nature, but insisted that the December 19 freeze was due to violations of provisions contained within its printing permit.