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Freedom House reports global liberties suffering

Washington-based Freedom House, an NGO that rates countries' freedom based on surveys detailing their political rights and civil liberties, announced on Tuesday that global freedom suffered notable setbacks last year but saw Asia as a bright spot, with democratic success stories in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India and Indonesia.

Last year, a total of 193 countries were included in the survey.

Results show that 90 countries, or 47 percent of the total reviewed, were judged to be free, 60 countries or 31 percent as partly free and 43 countries or 22 percent as not free.

A free country is defined as one where there is a broad scope for open political competition, a climate or respect for civil liberties, significant independent civic life and an independent media.

Countries in Western Europe and North America were mostly in the free nation category. In Asia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have been rated as free countries in recent years.

The 60 partly free countries, according to the report, may suffer from an environment of corruption, weak rule of law, and ethnic and religious strife. Many countries in Africa and some former Soviet republics were placed in this category.

The percentage of countries found "not free" remained the highest in the Middle East and north Africa, while Cuba, Libya, North Korea and Burma were rated the worst because of the absence of basic political rights and civil liberties.

According to the report, China remained the world's most populous "not free" country. The regime continued to crack down on political activists, journalists and human rights lawyers.

Preparations for this year's Olympic Games have contributed to China's antidemocratic environment, with millions of people forcibly moved to make way for Olympic facilities and new restrictions placed on ethnic and religious minorities.

The report also indicates the resurgence of pragmatic, market-oriented, or energy-rich dictatorships. The trend of governments trying to harness the power of the marketplace while maintaining closed political systems is most visible in Russia and China, but also in other parts of the world.
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