Tightly controlled Singapore placed 147th in the annual index put out by Reporters Without Borders - by far the lowest ranking of any developed country in the annual ranking - and just one notch above Iraq and 18 above Myanmar.

Others countries in the bottom two-dozen included Libya at 154, Zimbabwe at 157 and China at 162.

North Korea was ranked worst at 167; Cuba was 166.

Information Minister Lee Boon Yang said the index imposes a standard that fails to take into account "special circumstances'' in Singapore, where he said journalists contribute to the nation's development and are not necessarily adversarial.

Lee said the Reporters Without Borders index "is based largely on a different media model which favours the advocacy and adversarial role of the press.''

"We have a different media model in Singapore,'' Lee said in a written comments distributed by the government.

"This model has evolved out of our special circumstances and has enabled our media to contribute to nation building,'' he said, adding the government simply "did not agree'' with the organisation's rankings, which were released late last month.

Lee said Singapore's media "has to be sensitive to our national interests. The city-state's leaders have repeatedly said it would not change to cater to a more "Western'' set of media values.

All aspects of Singapore's media face strict censorship, while home TV satellite units remain off-limits.

Arts performances and plays remain under constant watch and topics deemed too sensitive, such as race and religion, remain taboo and out-of-bounds for discussion.

Foreign news organizations like the International Herald Tribune, the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Asian Wall Street Journal also have paid large fines or had their circulation restricted from lawsuits brought on by ruling party stalwarts.

In September, the Economist magazine paid Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, and his son Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime minister, S$390,000 (US$237,800; euro183,332) for a reference in an article to the younger Lee's wife, who heads Temasek.

The magazine had alleged that Lee's wife, Ho Ching, was not appointed on merit. The magazine subsequently apologised. - AP

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