Singapore has gone up from 144th last year to 133rd this year in the Reporters Without Borders eighth annual Press Freedom Index.
But Hong Kong is moving up too and is far more free, according to the index, even though it is a Special Administrative Region of China.
Hong Kong went up from 61st in 2007 to 51st last year and has now moved up to 48th. It is even one place ahead of Italy (49th).
Now who would have expected Hong Kong to move up in the press freedom index after its handover to China?
And, oh, did I mention even Malaysia and Thailand are leading Singapore by a whisker? Thailand is 130th and Malaysia 131st.
China is still at the bottom of the table, ranked 168th among the 175 countries surveyed. Only Laos, 169, Cuba, 170, Burma, 171, Iran, 172, Turkmenistan, 173, North Korea, 174, and Eritrea, 175, are ranked lower.
Still, Beijing has not taken away the press freedom Hong Kong enjoys under the Basic Law.
Article 27 of the Basic Law says:
"Hong Kong residents shall have freedom of speech, of the press and of publication; freedom of association, of assembly, of procession and of demonstration; and the right and freedom to form and join trade unions, and to strike."
The Singapore constitution, by contrast, makes no explicit commitment to the freedom of the press.
Article 14 says that "every citizen of Singapore has the right to freedom of speech and expression".
But it adds that "Parliament may by law impose… such restrictions as it considers necessary or expedient in the interest of the security of Singapore or any part thereof, friendly relations with other countries, public order or morality and restrictions designed to protect the privileges of Parliament or to provide against contempt of court, defamation or incitement to any offence."
Oops.
Newspapers are subject to government approval.
The Press and Printing Presses Act says:
"The Minister may in his discretion grant to any person in Singapore a licence to keep and use a press for the printing of documents and may at any time withdraw the licence either permanently or for such period as he thinks fit."
Not that press freedom is the most important measure of how good or bad life is in a country.
Plenty of people are perfectly happy to settle in Singapore or move to the United Arab Emirates, ranked 86th, or work in China.
But it is no surprise that Europe takes all the top 10 spots in the press freedom index. (See the table at the bottom.)
What is surprising how some former Soviet bloc countries are now in the top 10, pulling ahead of even America and Britain, which are ranked only 20th.
Denmark shares the first place with Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
The top 10, in fact, is almost an all-Scandinavian affair with ex-Soviets like the Estonians and Lithuanians also in the list along with the Swiss and the Dutch and the Icelanders.
Now that is a reason why press freedom cannot be equated with the good life: Iceland! Busted by the financial crisis.
Give me Singapore any day.
But Hong Kong — or so the press rankings claim — is freer.
In the Asia-Pacific, only New Zealand, 13th, Australia, 16th, and Japan, 17th, are ranked higher.
Taiwan is 59th, South Korea 69th, and India an abysmal 105th. Even Indonesia has leapfrogged India to the 100th spot.
One will have to wait for the detailed country reports to find out just how the countries were ranked.
Here are the top 20.
| Rank this year | Country | Rank last year |
| 1 | Denmark | 14 |
| 1 | Finland | 4 |
| 1 | Ireland | 4 |
| 1 | Norway | 1 |
| 1 | Sweden | 7 |
| 6 | Estonia | 4 |
| 7 | Netherlands | 16 |
| 7 | Switzerland | 7 |
| 9 | Iceland | 1 |
| 10 | Lithuania | 16 |
| 11 | Belgium | 7 |
| 11 | Malta | NA |
| 13 | Austria | 14 |
| 13 | Latvia | 7 |
| 13 | New Zealand | 7 |
| 16 | Australia | 28 |
| 17 | Japan | 29 |
| 18 | Germany | 20 |
| 19 | Canada | 13 |
| 20 | Luxembourg | 1 |
| 20 | UK | 23 |
| 20 | USA | 36 |
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