KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — Malaysia’s overall press freedom score in a global survey by Reporters Without Borders declined amid police arrests, government blocks of news websites, and lawsuits against the media.

Malaysia’s score in the 2016 World Press Freedom Index by the international group — which measures press freedom with seven indicators: pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure and abuses — worsened by 3.28 points to 46.57 out of 100, with 100 the worst possible score.

Its ranking in the global survey of 180 countries improved marginally, landing it the 146th spot, one step higher than last year.

“The persecution of outspoken journalists extends to the Internet, where sites such as Sarawak Report and The Edge have been blocked for reporting alleged corruption involving government officials.

“In the absence of judicial independence, the government does not hesitate to harass media outlets by taking them to court,” said Reporters Without Borders in the survey released today.

Malaysia scored better than Singapore that was ranked 154th, ahead of Brunei (155), Laos (173) and Vietnam (175).

Other Asian countries that similarly earned “bad” press freedom scores are Bangladesh which ranked 144th, Myanmar (143), the Philippines (138), Thailand (136), Indonesia (130), and Cambodia (128).

Finland was ranked the country with the greatest press freedom.

Reporters Without Borders noted that police raids have been launched against Malaysian newsrooms, with such “heavy-handed operations” often resulting in “arbitrary arrests”.

The authorities have raided Malaysiakini’s office several times, with one of the news portal’s journalists arrested in 2014 for sedition. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has also sued Malaysiakini for defamation.

Editors of the now defunct news portal The Malaysian Insider (TMI) were arrested under the Sedition Act 1948 last year over a hudud report. Their newsroom was raided by the police and officials from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Several of its journalists were also questioned by the police last February over a report on corruption.

TMI shut down last month after the government blocked access within the country to the news portal.